Top seed Aryna Sabalenka was unexpectedly eliminated from the Italian Open quarter-finals by China`s Qinwen Zheng. Meanwhile, Coco Gauff secured her place in the semi-finals.
Gauff continued her strong performance against Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva, securing a return to the Italian Open semi-finals with a 6-4, 7-6 (5) victory on Wednesday in Rome.
The fourth-seeded American`s next opponent will be the eighth seed, Zheng, who defeated the world number one, Sabalenka, with a score of 6-4, 6-3.
The other semi-final at this WTA 1000 clay-court event will see sixth-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini face off against unseeded American Peyton Stearns. Both players won their quarter-final matches the previous day.
The 21-year-old Gauff improved her head-to-head record against the 18-year-old Andreeva to 4-0 and her career record against younger opponents to 11-1.
“Honestly I don`t think about the head-to-head so much,” Gauff commented after her quarter-final victory, which lasted one hour and 42 minutes. “Especially when you`re playing someone younger, you know that they can improve so much in a little bit of time.”
“I mean, I think about my game compared to when I was her age to now, it`s a lot different. At the same time when I go on court, I treat each match like a new match and expect her to be better than the last time we played.”
Gauff, who recovered from a 3-2 deficit in the second set, has now become the youngest player since Martina Hingis in 1999 to reach the semi-finals in Rome three times (2021, 2024).
The decisive tiebreak was closely contested, featuring a notable drop shot from the Russian that leveled the score at 5-5 before two unforced errors from Andreeva sealed her defeat.
“At the end, my defence, it was tough,” Gauff noted. “We were both tight in the tiebreaker, it was whoever could make the last ball. Today some points weren`t my best, but I still managed to be successful.”
The 22-year-old Zheng reached her first semi-final in Rome after previous quarter-final exits in 2023 and 2024. In her 97-minute win over Sabalenka, she served four aces and won an impressive 82% (28 of 34) of her first-service points.
Zheng successfully saved all five break points she faced and converted three out of her 10 break opportunities, including the one in the final game on her second match point.
Tensions ran high for Sabalenka early in the second set when she was given a warning by the chair umpire for audible obscenity after yelling at a spectator.
This victory marked Zheng`s first win against Sabalenka in seven encounters and her first semi-final appearance of the current season.
“It`s been a long time I haven`t arrived in semi-finals,” said Zheng, the Paris Olympics gold medallist, speaking to Sky Sports Tennis after the match.
“It was not easy for me because at the beginning of the year I had some struggles with my arm.”
“So right now I`m just perfectly in shape and trying to play better tennis all the time.”
