In Madrid, Coco Gauff secured her spot in the Mutua Madrid Open Round of 16 with a decisive 6-2, 6-3 win over Ann Li on Saturday. She joins her compatriot, Madison Keys, who also advanced.
Four other American players were still in contention to reach the last 16: third seed Jessica Pegula, No. 11 Emma Navarro, No. 32 Sofia Kenin, and Peyton Stearns.
Gauff quickly recovered after dropping the first two games against Li, winning eight consecutive games to cruise to the win. This result matches Gauff`s previous best showing in Madrid from 2022. Madrid is one of just three tournaments where she hasn`t reached the quarterfinals despite playing it at least four times, the others being Wimbledon and the Miami Open.
Gauff`s next opponent on Monday will be the winner of the match between sixteenth seed Beatriz Haddad Maia and Belinda Bencic.
The 21-year-old Gauff has shown impressive consistency on clay when facing lower-ranked opponents. Since her initial clay-court WTA loss to a player outside the Top 50 (Martina Trevisan at Roland Garros in 2020), Gauff has won all 29 subsequent matches against players in that ranking range.
In her match against Li, Gauff successfully converted five out of nine break points. Her season break point conversion rate now stands at 70/128 (54.7%), placing her third among WTA players, just behind Polina Kudermetova (56.2%) and Emma Raducanu (56.1%).
Earlier the same day, Madison Keys advanced by defeating Anna Kalinskaya in straight sets, 7-5, 7-6(3). This victory was a turnaround from her loss to Kalinskaya in Charleston just weeks prior.
Kalinskaya, the 30th seed, held three set points in the second set but couldn`t convert them. Keys then dominated the tiebreak, winning six of the final seven points. Keys was strong on serve, saving nine of twelve break points against her, while Kalinskaya failed to convert any of her four opportunities.
Fifth seed Keys is set to face the winner of the late match between eleventh seed Navarro and nineteenth seed Donna Vekic on Monday. Only the World No. 1, Aryna Sabalenka, with 12 wins, has secured more victories against seeded opponents this season than Keys, who has 11.
With this win, Keys becomes just the third American woman to achieve over 100 match victories at WTA 1000 level events, following in the footsteps of Serena and Venus Williams. Her 24 clay-court wins at this level move her past Venus into second place for American players, trailing only Serena.
Keys also added four aces to her season tally, bringing her total to 124. This places her third in the WTA for the season, behind only Clara Tauson (159) and Linda Noskova (127).
