Gauff fights back to join Sabalenka in quarters

 Coco Gauff fought from a set down to beat Belinda Bencic and join defending champion, Aryna Sabalenka, in the Australian Open quarter-fi­nals.

The American third seed was not at her best but outlasted Switzerland’s Bencic 5-7 6-2 6-1.

Earlier, Sabalenka breezed past Russian 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva in a 6-1 6-2 victory.

Gauff’s victory in 34 degree heat – the hottest day of the tournament so far – extended the 20-year-old’s winning run to 11 matches.

“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’,” said Gauff.

“I was just trying to put myself in the position where I could leave the court and feel proud of myself.”

Belarusian top seed Sabalen­ka, 26, meanwhile, remains on course for a third straight Australian Open title after wrapping up her win over Andreeva in just 62 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

It was the two-time cham­pion’s 18th win in a row at Melbourne Park, and sets up a quarter-final against another Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchen­kova.

Pavlyuchenkova beat Croa­tia’s Donna Vekic 7-6 (7-0) 6-0 in the fourth round earlier on Sunday.

Gauff will play 11th seed Paula Badosa in the last eight after the Spaniard defeated Serbia’s Olga Danilovic 6-1 7-6 (7-2).

Should they both win their quarter-finals, Sabalenka and Gauff will meet in the semi-fi­nals.

Gauff came into her match with Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Bencic having not dropped a set in eight matches this season.

But as she has on previous occasions, she struggled with her serve throughout and two double faults from the Ameri­can handed Bencic the decisive break she needed to take the first set in 62 minutes.

Despite serving nine double faults across the match, Gauff started to take control midway through before Bencic faded in the Melbourne heat in the latter stages.

A hard-fought hold after three deuces set Gauff on her way at the start of the third set before breaking to go 3-1 up and safely seeing out the rest of the encounter.

“I thought, first set, she played great tennis and it was tough for me to be on the offensive,” said Gauff.

“I just played more aggres­sively in the second set and then also the third set. But overall, I’m happy with how I played.” —BBC.com

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