Coco Gauff has admitted that the conditions in Rome made Monday’s victory over Emma Raducanu an ‘awkward’ one. It certainly didn’t look tricky for the American, as she dominated her British opponent to come away with a 6-1 6-2 victory and advance to the Italian Open quarter-finals.
Both players battled through gusts of wind inside Grand Stand Arena, but Gauff was better able to cope as she stopped Raducanu’s impressive tournament run in style. Former US Open champion Raducanu came through tests against Maya Joint, Jil Teichmann and Veronika Kudermetova to set up a meeting with the fourth seed in only her second appearance on Rome’s clay courts.
Even though the final scoreline was emphatic, Gauff insisted she didn’t have everything her own way. The 21-year-old said in her post-match press conference: “[I needed] a little bit of luck because it was super windy so some points were very awkward to play.
“I would say my serve and definitely my forehand [hurt Raducanu]. I think I was able to use that a lot to move her around the court and really put her on defence for most of the match. So I think those were the two keys.”
She continued: “I knew it was going to be a tougher match. She’s been playing some great tennis, and you know, she had a good win over Veronika which is not easy to do. So yeah, I’m really happy with how I played today and yeah definitely my best match so far here.”
Gauff has not dropped a set since her opening match against 18-year-old Canadian, Victoria Mboko. But things could get tougher for her in the quarter-finals, where she has drawn seventh seed Mirra Andreeva.
Teenage star Andreeva has enjoyed an incredible year so far, taking overall victories at the Dubai Tennis Championships and Indian Wells. She did, however, come unstuck against Gauff in their Madrid Open quarter-final meeting just two weeks ago.
Andreeva has been going well in Rome, where straightforward wins over Emiliana Arango and Linda Noskova got her into the last 16. But her title bid intensified against Clara Tauson on Monday.
The Dane took the first set, and after Andreeva levelled it up by winning the second, she burst into tears following a heated row with the chair umpire, who forced her to replay a point. The youngster still managed to compose herself and come away with a 5-7 6-3 6-2 victory.
