Coco Gauff has reached the Round of 16 at the Mutua Madrid Open, securing a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Ann Li on Saturday. She is joined in the next stage by fellow American Madison Keys.
Four other players from the United States still have the opportunity to advance: third seed Jessica Pegula, eleventh seed Emma Navarro, thirty-second seed Sofia Kenin, and Peyton Stearns.
After initially dropping the first two games to Li, Gauff responded powerfully by winning eight consecutive games, ultimately cruising to the win. This performance equals Gauff’s best result in Madrid, which she also achieved in 2022. The Madrid Open is one of only three tournaments where she has competed four or more times without yet reaching the quarterfinals, alongside Wimbledon and the Miami Open.
Gauff`s next match on Monday will be against the winner of the ongoing contest between sixteenth seed Beatriz Haddad Maia and Belinda Bencic.
Having recently turned 21, Gauff has demonstrated remarkable consistency on clay courts when facing opponents she is expected to beat. Since losing her first career WTA clay-court match to Martina Trevisan (ranked outside the Top 50) at Roland Garros in 2020, Gauff has won every subsequent match (29 in total) against opponents in that ranking category on this surface.
In her match against Li, Gauff converted five of her nine break point opportunities. Her season break point conversion rate is 70 out of 128 (.547), ranking her third on the WTA Tour behind Polina Kudermetova (.562) and Emma Raducanu (.561).
Earlier in the tournament, Madison Keys defeated Anna Kalinskaya 7-5, 7-6(3), avenging a straight-sets loss to Kalinskaya from earlier this month in Charleston.
The 30th seed, Kalinskaya, held three set points in the second set, but Keys managed to save them and then won six of the last seven points in the tiebreak to clinch the match. Keys was solid on her serve, saving nine of 12 break points, while Kalinskaya could not convert any of her four opportunities.
The fifth seed, Keys, is set to play the winner of the Monday night match between eleventh seed Navarro and nineteenth seed Donna Vekic. Keys` victory against Kalinskaya was her 11th win against a seeded opponent this season. Only World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka has achieved more wins (12) against seeded players this year.
Keys` win against Kalinskaya marked her 100th match victory at WTA 1000 events, making her only the third American woman to reach this milestone, following Serena and Venus Williams. With 24 of those wins coming on clay, Keys moves past Venus Williams for the second-highest number of clay-court wins by an American in this category, trailing only Serena.
Keys also hit four aces during the match, bringing her season total to 124. This places her third on the WTA Tour for aces in 2024, behind Clara Tauson (159) and Linda Noskova (127).
Rupert Caldwell