Gauff gets through Bencic, but can she handle Andreeva next?
The two youngest players in the Top 30, Coco Gauff and Mirra Andreeva, will face each other for the third time in the Mutua Madrid Open quarterfinals.
No. 4 seed Gauff won the latest instalment of her back-and-forth rivalry with Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2 to book her place in the last eight of Madrid for the first time. The 20-year-old has now reached the quarterfinals of every WTA 1000 tournament on the current calendar except Miami.
Just after the American wrapped up her win, No. 7 seed Andreeva followed with a 6-1, 6-4 defeat of qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva to return to the quarterfinals for a second year in a row. Andreeva is already a two-time WTA 1000 champion this year, having lifted the trophies in Dubai and Indian Wells, and will celebrate her 18th birthday on Tuesday.
Minutes after Gauff's match point, the tournament was hit by widespread power outages across Spain, confirmed by the electricity grid operator, Red Eléctrica. The power cut occurred as Andreeva was serving for the match, but she managed to save four break points to get over the line before play was paused on all courts.
Madrid: Draws | Scores | Order of play
The pair have not met since 2023, Andreeva's breakthrough season on the Hologic WTA Tour. Both of their previous encounters came on the major stage. Andreeva qualified for Roland Garros 2023 to make her Grand Slam main-draw debut, and her run was only halted by Gauff 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-1 in the third round. Gauff reprised the result 6-3, 6-2 in the US Open second round three months later.
Two years later, they will meet as Top 10 players for the first time. Andreeva is currently on a five-match winning streak against Top 10 opposition; Gauff has lost her only previous 2025 match with another Top 10 player, to Jasmine Paolini in last week's Stuttgart quarterfinals.
Serve, return key for Gauff: Gauff and Bencic have been frequent foes of late: this was their third encounter of the season already, but the first time they had ever played on clay. Gauff now leads the overall head-to-head 3-2, and the 2025 head-to-head 2-1.
Unlike their three-set meetings at the Australian Open (won by Gauff) and Indian Wells (won by Bencic), this edition of their rivalry was a relatively straightforward affair. Gauff outplayed Bencic on serve, return and off the ground. She brought up 14 break opportunities on the Bencic delivery, converting four, but only faced one herself. She struck 25 winners to Bencic's 10, and won 85% of her first-serve points compared to the Swiss player's 60%.
Gauff's relentless punishment of the Bencic second serve was notable. She found three clean return winners to break for the first time for 4-2 in the first set, and another to break for 3-1 in the second; Bencic was ultimately only able to win four points behind her second delivery.
Andreeva continues solid form in Madrid: Andreeva delivered a cool, clutch performance to keep a lid on a dangerous opponent she had never faced before. Blending power and finesse, Starodubtseva laid down a statement of intent by bringing up three break points in the very first game of the match. Throughout the contest, the Ukrainian's drop shot worked wonders on several occasions.
But Andreeva's ability to deliver the perfect tactics for every scoreboard occasion is one of her greatest strengths, and the teenager did it again here. Despite Starodubtseva's repeated threat, Andreeva saved nine out nine break points against her. In the first set, she played careful, consistent tennis to lure her No. 99-ranked opponent into error on big points. In the second, as the scoreline grew tighter, Andreeva was more creative and aggressive, matching Starodubtseva with fine drop shots of her own.
