Cincinnati | Gemff Leist Paolini for a semi -final place

World No 2 Seed Coco Gauff reached the last 8 on the WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open on Thursday with an uncomplicated victory over Lucia Bronzetti, where she will meet Jasmine Paolini for a place in Saturday’s semi -final.

“For the most part I played aggressively. Maybe I became a bit passive in some of those games. But it’s hard – the balls are super light and they fly, and she didn’t give me a lot of pace, so I just tried to play in a controlled manner but also playing aggressively. Coco Gauff

Also through in the upper part of the lower half of the draw, Varvara Gracheva, who won the battle for qualifications against Ella Seidel and takes on against Veronika Kudermetova, a upset winner over Magda Linette, the no. 31 seed, to continue to the quarterfinales.

Gauff, who won the French Open earlier in the year, booked her place with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Bronzetti, who needed 80 minutes to complete the task and not to show rust signs as a result of not playing a competitive match for 4 days, since her last victory on Wang Xinyu from China in the 2nd round.

Both she and Bronzetti arrived in the last 16 in contrasting ways, in which Gauff had won her only game in straight sets before she received a walk-over from Dayana Yastremska due to illness in the last round, while Bronzetti had fought through 3 games that went the full distance.

The Italian is 61 and quickly found himself 0-3 against the 21-year-old American, which she eventually broke in the 5th game, but it turned out to be a short blip when the no. 2 seed won the opening set in 33 minutes.

Gauff then went up 2-0 in the second, but still suffered a course when she was broken to love the Italian in the 3rd game, which raised her level and held a breaking point at 2-2, just to send a backhand-decay for a long time while the American managed to hold in.

It had become a more competitive affair, although Bronzetti became twice double when he served in the game, and Gauff continued to break and insured the victory.

“For the most part I played aggressively,” said Gauff, who won the Cincinnati Open in 2023 before he won the US Open that same year. “Maybe there were a few that was a bit passive, in some of those games, but it’s hard – the balls are super light and she didn’t give me much pace.

“I just tried to play in a controlled manner, but also aggressively and for the most part I think I did well.”

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Despite the reaching of the 4th round in Montreal last week, Gauff’s Run in Canada was remarkable for the release of the serving Yip’s who came and gone during her career because they made 43 double mistakes in 3 games.

Eight were followed against Wang in her Cincy opener, and she committed another 2 points in her match against Bronzetti, but that was largely that because she was only 3 double errors in general, which is her lowest total in a single match since the 2 that she hit against Lois Boisson in the semi-final of Roland Garros.

On this occasion, Gauff won 63% of her firsts serving points, but also a neat 58% of her second servant points, and hit 23 winners to Bronzettis 7.

The Italian’s ability to pull points had her 2 disturbances of seeds, Daria Kasatkina and Jelena Ostapenko, earned to reach the last 16, but the strategy met his match in Gauff, who remained patient in the elongated points to complete the most rallies on her own terms.

Gauff goes to her 5th quarterfinals on WTA 1000 or Grand Slam level in 2025 of the 10 tournaments played and improves to 2-0 in general against Bronzetti.

7th placed Jasmine Paolini exceeded a distressed Barbora Krejcikova to meet Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals on Friday

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The World No 2 Afterwards is confronted with another Italian in Jasmine Paolini, the 7th seed that has sent a distressed 2-way Grand Slam champion, Barbora Krejcikova from the Czech Republic, 6-1 6-2, in 71 minutes.

It was their first meeting since the final of Wimbledon in 2024, but Krejcikova needed a medical time-out while finding out 3-0 in the second set, which received treatment on her left foot, after which the movement of the Czech was visibly hindered.

“I think she was not at 100%, but she is an incredible player,” said Paolini. “She can place the ball wherever she wants. I don’t know how she does this. But I’m glad I tried to stay mentally there until the last point.”

Friday’s quarterfinals will be the 5th meeting between Gauff and Paolini, and their second meeting in Cincy when the American defeated the Italian, 6-3 6-2, in the quarterfinals of 2023.

Gauff won their first two games, both on hard courts, but this year Paolini led the head-to head with two victories on clay.

Varvara Gracheva won the Battle of qualifications on Thursday and Ella Seidel defeated in 3 sets to reach her first quarter final at WTA 1000 level

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In the meantime, the Russian French woman, Varvara Gracheva, her fellow qualification, Ella Seidel from Germany, 2-6 6-1 6-1, to make the first WTA 1000 quarter final, came from a set to prevail after an hour and 57 minutes.

The competition was the 6th time that 2 qualifications in the last 16, or deeper, have confronted a WTA 1000 since the introduction of the format in 2009, and the first since Ekaterina Alexandrova Marie Bouzkova beat in the last 16 of Madrid 2022.

The Russian Veronika Kudermetova came from 0-2 in the second set to eliminate the No. 31 seed, Magda Linette from Poland, to continue to her first WTA 1000 quarter finals since Rome 2023, and her first on hard courts since Guadalajara 2022.

In total, Kudermetova has now reached 5 quarter-finals at WTA 1000 level or higher.

In their 3rd meeting, Kudermetova has defeated Gracheva twice before, but they have not played each other since 2022, also on hard courts in Monastir, Tunisia.

Veronika Kudermetova got no. 31 seed, Magda Linette, in straight sets and will meet Varvara Gracheva for a place in the semi-final of the Cincy

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