Gauff ousts Andreeva in youngest WTA 1000 quarterfinal since 2009
No. 4 seed Coco Gauff executed a first-set turnaround on her way to a comprehensive quarterfinal victory over No. 7 seed Mirra Andreeva at the Mutua Madrid Open on Wednesday.
Gauff was down a break at 5-4 in the first set and she faced two set points, but the American completely took over from there. She reeled off nine of the next ten games to storm to a 7-5, 6-1 win after 1 hour and 32 minutes of play.
Madrid: Draws | Scores | Order of play
"Off the ground I think I was dictating most of the rallies, so happy with that," Gauff said, after her win. "For sure [my] movement, and serving well, so, yeah, overall happy with everything."
Defending champion Swiatek battles past Keys to make Madrid semifinals
Iga awaits: Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, will now take on her frequent opponent Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. Swiatek, the defending Madrid champion and winner of five Grand Slam titles, leads Gauff 11-3 in their head-to-head.
Gauff started their rivalry losing their first seven meetings (0-14 in sets) before getting her maiden win over Swiatek at 2023 Cincinnati. In fact, the American has won their last two meetings, including this year at United Cup. However, she is yet to beat Swiatek on the Pole's favored clay surface.
Youngest WTA 1000 quarterfinal since 2009: Since the introduction of the WTA 1000 tier in 2009, this match had the second-youngest combined age between two opponents in a WTA 1000 quarterfinal. Only the 2009 Indian Wells quarterfinal between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Agnieszka Radwanska had a younger combined age.
It was 21-year-old Gauff who was able to battle past Andreeva, who turned 18 on Tuesday. Gauff now finds herself in her ninth WTA 1000 semifinal, and third on clay. Her other clay-court WTA 1000 semifinals were at Rome in 2021 and 2024, and she lost to Iga Swiatek on both of those occasions.
With a final four appearance at Madrid now under her belt, Gauff is the second-youngest player to have posted semifinal showings at both Madrid and Rome. Only Caroline Wozniacki obtained both of those results at a younger age; the Dane was still 20 years old when she pulled off the feat.
By besting Andreeva, Gauff notched the 25th Top 10 win of her career. The American is the youngest player to claim 25 Top 10 wins since 20-year-old Ana Ivanovic hit that milestone in 2008.
Turning point: Andreeva broke Gauff at love to lead 5-4 in the opening set, and the teenager seemed to be on her way to a commanding lead after reaching double set point in the next game.
However, a backhand winner by Gauff on the first set point appeared to unlock something in the American, and she steeled herself in groundstroke rallies to grind her way to a pair of break points. On her second chance, Gauff knocked a forehand winner off of a short ball to get back on level terms at 5-5.
Gauff was a new player after that, holding for 6-5, then breaking Andreeva at love to grab the one-set advantage.
In the second set, Gauff staggeringly did not lose a point on her serve (15 straight) until she reached triple match point at 5-1, 40-0. She missed an error long there, but that was her only blemish down the stretch as she closed out the win on her second match point.
"I didn't really change the way I played," Gauff said, looking back on the reversal. "I think it was just finally those break points were coming my direction, whereas before earlier in the set I had so many opportunities, but it just wasn't clicking.
"And it was credit to her, I don't think I did too much wrong on some of them. Some of them she just aced me, hit a great serve, great shot, great drop shot, so it's fine."
