Italian Open semi-finalists confirmed on women’s side as top-seed Aryna Sabalenka beaten by Qinwen Zheng of China; Coco Gauff beats Mirra Andreeva to progress; watch all the action from the ATP and WTA Tours on Sky Sports Tennis and Sky Sports+, NOW and the Sky Sports app.
Top seed Aryna Sabalenka was knocked out of the Italian Open quarter-finals by China’s Qinwen Zheng, as Coco Gauff booked a semi-final place.
Gauff continued her mastery over Russian teen Mirra Andreeva and returned to the Italian Open semi-finals with a 6-4 7-6 (5) victory on Wednesday in Rome.
The fourth-seeded American’s next opponent will be No 8 seed Zheng, who ousted Sabalenka 6-4 6-3.
The other semi-final at the WTA 1000 clay-court tournament will feature sixth-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini and unseeded American Peyton Stearns, who won their quarter-final matches on Tuesday.
Gauff, 21, improved to 4-0 against the 18-year-old Andreeva and raised her career record to 11-1 against players younger than her.
“Honestly I don’t think about the head-to-head so much,” Gauff said after finishing her quarter-final win in one hour and 42 minutes. “Especially when you’re playing someone younger, you know that they can improve so much in a little bit of time.
“I mean, I think about my game compared to when I was her age to now, it’s a lot different. At the same time when I go on court, I treat each match like a new match and expect her to be better than the last time we played.”