Coco Gauff continued his mastery over Russian young Mirra Andreeva, and on Wednesday, 6-4, 7-6 (5) returned to the Italian open semifinals in Rome.
The fourth-seed American will be the best-seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 and 6-3 will be Qinwen Zhengen from China.
In the other semifinals at the WTA 1000 Clay-Court Tournament, the sixth seed Italian Jasmine Paolini and Seedless American Peyton Stearns, who won the quarter-final matches on Tuesday, will be on Tuesday.
21-year-old Gauff rose to 4-0 against 18-year-old Andreeva and raised his career record to 11-1 against younger players.
“To be honest, I don’t think much head -to -head,” Gauff said after finishing the quarter -final win in 1 hour and 42 minutes. “You know that they can develop a lot, especially when playing a younger person.
“I mean, I think my game is very different compared to the time I have aged. At the same time, when I go to court, I act like a new match and expect it to be better than we played last.”
In the second set, Gauff, who overcome the 3-2 deficit, has been the young semifinalist three times in the Italian capital since Martina Hingis in 1999.
The decisive Tiebreak went back and forth, including a bright drop taken by Russian to make 5-5 by Russian before sealing the fate of a few faulty Backhands Andreeva.
“It was hard for me to defend,” Gauff said. “We were both in Tiebreaker, who could do the last ball. Today some points were not the best, but I still succeeded to succeed.”
The 22 -year -old Zheng reached the last four in Rome after the quarter -finals in 2023 and 2024. He shot four AS and won 82 percent of his first service score in the 97 -minute win in Sabalenka number 1 (28).
Zheng saved five break points and transformed three of the 10 breaks, including the game that decided at the second match point.
When the tensions shouted up to an audience “(Expletive), Sabalenka took the best of the second set, which he wanted a warning for a chair referee.
Zheng defeated Sabalenka for the first time in seven meetings.
-FELD level media
