World No. 4 Coco Gauff secured a dominant quarterfinal victory over No. 7 seed Mirra Andreeva at the Mutua Madrid Open on Wednesday, recovering from an early first-set challenge.
Gauff trailed by a break at 5-4 in the opening set and faced two set points. However, the American turned the match around decisively from that juncture. She proceeded to win nine of the subsequent ten games, storming to a convincing 7-5, 6-1 victory in just over an hour and a half (1 hour and 32 minutes).
Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, is now set to face her frequent opponent, Iga Swiatek, in the semifinals. Swiatek, the defending champion in Madrid and a five-time Grand Slam winner, holds an 11-3 advantage in their head-to-head record.
Their rivalry began with Gauff losing the first seven matches (14 straight sets) before she claimed her first win over Swiatek at the 2023 Cincinnati tournament. The American has actually won their last two meetings, including one earlier this year at the United Cup. Despite this recent success, she has yet to defeat Swiatek on the Pole`s favored clay surface.
This specific quarterfinal match featured the second-youngest combined age of opponents in a WTA 1000 quarterfinal since this tournament tier was introduced in 2009. Only the 2009 Indian Wells quarterfinal between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Agnieszka Radwanska involved players with a younger collective age.
Ultimately, the 21-year-old Gauff proved too strong for Andreeva, who had just turned 18 on Tuesday. Gauff`s progression sends her into her ninth career WTA 1000 semifinal, and her third on clay. Her previous clay WTA 1000 semifinal appearances were both in Rome (2021 and 2024), and she was defeated by Iga Swiatek on both occasions.
By reaching the final four in Madrid, Gauff becomes the second-youngest player to have achieved semifinal berths at both the Madrid and Rome tournaments. Caroline Wozniacki is the only player to have accomplished this feat at a younger age, doing so before turning 21.
Her win over Andreeva also marks Gauff`s 25th career victory against a Top 10 ranked player. She is the youngest player since Ana Ivanovic (who reached the milestone in 2008 at age 20) to accumulate 25 wins against Top 10 opponents.
The turning point of the match arguably came when Andreeva broke Gauff`s serve at love to take a 5-4 lead in the first set, subsequently earning double set point in the following game, appearing poised to claim the set.
However, a decisive backhand winner from Gauff on the first set point seemed to inject new energy into her game. She elevated her play in the baseline rallies, persistently working points to earn a pair of break points. On her second opportunity, Gauff struck a forehand winner off a short ball, successfully breaking back to level the set at 5-5.
Gauff was noticeably invigorated after that crucial break. She held her serve confidently for a 6-5 lead, and then broke Andreeva`s serve at love to secure the one-set advantage.
In the second set, Gauff delivered a dominant performance on her serve, remarkably not losing a point for 15 consecutive points until she reached triple match point at 5-1, 40-0. Although she missed one shot long at that stage, it was her only late-set lapse, and she sealed the victory on her second match point.
