Gauff also eliminates the big favorite, Aryna Sabalenka

After eliminating the Greek Maria Sakkari, 17th favorite of the WTA 1,000 in Rome on Wednesday, Coco Gauff did the same on Thursday with the seventh and recent Mutua Madrid Open champion, Aryna Sabalenka. The 17-year-old American beat the 23-year-old Belarusian by 7-5 and 6-3 in 90 minutes and she will face number one, Ashleigh Barty, in the quarterfinals, who beat the icy Russian tennis player Veronika Kudermetova with great comfort (double 6-3 in 1h: 21), in what was the first confrontation between the two.

Gauff already knew what it is to beat Sabalenka, because he did it last year at Lexington, so he knew how to create problems for him and he did it from the beginning, with a start break. He could not keep it until the end of the first set, but he again broke his rival's serve for 7-5. In the second round, Gauff was even more solid and scored two new breaks to which Sabalenka had no response, who had never reached the second round in the Italian capital, just like Coco, a headache right now for anyone who gets into it. in front.

At the bottom of the table, Jessica Pegula gave a good account of the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova (6-2 and 6-4) and will face the Croatian Petra Martic, who got rid of the Argentine Nadia Podoroska (3-6, 6-1 and 6-2), disappointing to be eliminated the day after beating Serena Williams. And Karolina Pliskova imposed her ranking (7th favorite) against the 36-year-old veteran Vera Zvonareva, whom she beat 7-5, 6-3 in 1h: 36. Three years ago, in Moscow, the Russian had won and the Czech took a cold revenge in Rome. She will face the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko in the quarterfinals, who won 4-6, 6-3 and 6-4 in a 2h: 11 battle against Germany's Angelique Kerber.

1000 WTA Rome results.