American Coco Gauff, the No 3 seed, beat Chinese Qinwen Zheng, the No 7 seed, 7-6 (4), 6-1 to move into the semi-finals of the Italian Open at the Foro Italico in Rome on Tuesday evening.
Gauff, ranked No 3, will face Pole Iga Swiatek, the top seed, next – the player she faced at the same stage three years ago and to whom she lost in straight sets.
She has now won 61 matches in WTA 1000 events before turning 21 – the most of any player since the introduction of the format in 2009, overtaking Caroline Wozniacki who had 60.
The 20-year-old American won against Pole Magdalena Frech (6-3, 6-3), Romanian lucky loser Jaqueline Cristian (6-1, 0-6, 6-3) and Spaniard Paula Badosa (5-7, 6-4, 6-1) ahead of her victory.
In the previous rounds of the Rome tournament, Zheng, ranked No 7, won against American Shelby Rogers (6-2, 6-0), No 29 seed Linda Noskova (3-6, 6-1, 6-2) and Japanese Naomi Osaka (6-2, 6-4).
Roma WTA 1000, other last eight results (Foro Italico, clay, USD 5.509.771, most recent results first):
- Victoria Azarenka vs. Danielle Collins
- Jelena Ostapenko vs. Aryna Sabalenka
- Iga Swiatek beat Madison Keys (18): 6-1, 6-3
