Coco Gauff
bounced back from a weak start and eliminated
Linda Noskova from the Cincinnati
Open, reaching the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 Western & Southern Open.
A match
between two young female players featured 18-year-old Noskova and 19-year-old
Gauff in the
Cincinnati Open. The Czech player advanced through the qualifiers
and secured notable victories over Liudmila Samsonova and the 9th seed Petra
Kvitova, reaching the round of 16 in a WTA 1000 event for the first time in her
career.
Coco Gauff,
entering as the 7th seed, received a first-round bye and made her debut in the
second round against Mayar Sherif, securing a convincing victory of 6-2, 6-2.
An unusual
first set unfolded, with Gauff managing to hold her service only once and Noskova
failing to do so. With a score of 6-4 in favor of the American, nine out of ten
games featured breaks of serve.
World No. 7
only won 35% of points with her first serve and 11% with her second serve. In
Noskova's case, she won 59% of points with her first serve and just 14% with
her second.
After a
closely contested first set, Gauff entered the second set dominating from the
beginning. This time, with an 88% success rate on her first serve and 71% on
her second serve, Gauff started to take control with her own service and
maintained her effectiveness on the return, securing a 6-0 victory, frustrating
Noskova.
This marks
the fourth time this year that the former French Open finalist has reached the
quarterfinals of a WTA 1000 event, although she has only progressed to the
semifinals once, at the Dubai Open.
In the
quarterfinals, Gauff will face Jasmine Paolini, the surprise of the tournament
who advanced from the qualifiers and eliminated Marta Kostyuk and Cristina
Bucsa to reach the third round.
There, she
faced Elena Rybakina, who retired with a score of 6-4, 2-5, allowing the
Italian to advance to her first quarterfinals in a WTA 1000 event and
potentially reach her highest ranking, currently positioned at world No. 34 in
the live rankings.