By Nick Mulvenney
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Coco Gauff rallied from a set down to beat Belinda Bencic 5-7 6-2 6-1 on Sunday to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and extend her winning streak from the start of the season to nine matches.
Swiss Bencic, ranked a lowly 294th on her return to the tour after having a daughter, had won seven of her eight meetings with major champions and showed why as she took the first set in bright sunshine on Rod Laver Arena.
American third seed Gauff, who had not previously dropped a set in 2025, came out firing at the start of the second stanza, however, and got her reward for her more aggressive shot-making when she levelled up the contest at 1-1.
Bencic had a look at Gauff’s serve in the opening game of the decider but the 2023 U.S. Open champion slammed the door shut before breaking for 3-1 as the net cord twice conspired against her opponent.
The 27-year-old Swiss looked broken by her bad luck and Gauff rattled off the last three games to seal the victory and a set a quarter-final date with Spain’s Paula Badosa.
“I thought in the first set she played great tennis, it was tough for me to be more on offence,” the 20-year-old said.
“Overall I’m happy with how I played, the first set could have gone my way with a few more points and I played more aggressively in the second set then reset to play my best in the third.”
Gauff will not be entirely happy with nine double faults in a total tally of 45 unforced errors, nor with a success rate on her second serve of around 40%, as she looks to at least match her run to the semi-finals in Melbourne last year.
“We worked very hard in the offseason, obviously there’s still a lot for me to go to accomplish my goal,” Gauff said.
“Maybe a couple of years ago, if I lost the first set I might lose the match and I remember my dad said, ‘we’ve got to toughen you up’.
“I was just trying to put myself in the position where I could leave the court and feel proud of myself.”
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
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