Photo credit: Internazionali BNL d'Italia Facebook
A burst of wind kicked up a curtain of crushed red brick dust.
Eyes riveted on the ball, Coco Gauff unleashed a tennis tempest to continue her Rome roll.
In a clash of US Open champions, Gauff stormed through five straight games erasing Emma Raducanu 6-1, 6-2 to land her third Rome quarterfinal in six appearances.
“I knew it was gonna be a tougher match,” Gauff told Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj afterward. “She’s been playing some great tennis so I’m really happy with how I played today. Definitely my best match here so far.
“I would say serve and forehand [were key]. I think I was able to use that a lot to move her around the court and really put her on defense for most of the match. So I think those were the two keys.”
Gauff, who will supplant Iga Swiatek as world No. 2 when the new WTA rankings are released, is bidding to break Swiatek’s mark as the youngest woman to reach Madrid and Rome finals in the same season.
The fourth-seeded Gauff will face either Dubai and Indian Wells champion Mirra Andreeva or 22nd-seeded Clara Tauson for a semifinal spot.
During her run to the Madrid final, Gauff dismissed Andreeva 7-5, 6-1 in the Mutua Madrid Open quarterfinals.
WTA Finals champion Gauff joins compatriot Peyton Stearns as the second American woman into the Internazionali BNL d’Italia last eight.
Battling cramps, a queasy stomach and a red-hot former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka, Stearns prevailed with a pulsating 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4) triumph to reach her maiden Rome quarterfinal. Stearns vomited into a trash can both before and after the dramatic third-set tiebreaker.
Stearns snapped Osaka’s eight-match clay-court win streak, fighting through her second straight third-set tiebreaker triumph. The 23-year-old Stearns out-dueled Australian Open champion Madison Keys 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(3) in the third round for her second career Top 10 win.
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The first clay-court meeting between major champion Gauff and Raducanu created intrigue.
Playing with buzz-kill boldness, Gauff drained any drama winning the first three games and the final five games in a 79-minute dirt demolition.
"I found it really hard today. The conditions were different," Raducanu told the media in Rome. "It was windy. So high-bouncing. I felt lake every ball was outside my strike zone, so I couldn't get a good hit. Yeah, it just kept getting higher and higher. It was really hard.
"And Coco played a great match, too. Found great shape, great width, great depth. I felt outplayed today. But it was good to kind of see where I'm at in these conditions."
Belting her backhand about 10 miles per hour faster than the Briton, Gauff cracked faster, deeper drives and played far more points off the front foot than Raducanu.
Playing Rome for just the second time, Raducanu came out looking a little tight and couldn’t consistently generate enough racquet-head speed or depth to really trouble Gauff.
The 21-year-old Gauff set the tone at the outset. Driving the ball deeper , Gauff persistently pushed Raducanu further behind the baseline into defensive positions.
Gauff broke at 15 for a 2-0 lead. Though Raducanu ended a rousing 20-shot rally with a short-angled forehand that helped her earn break point in the third game, Gauff punctured pressure.
Flicking a forehand pass and sliding an ace down the T helped Gauff hold for 3-0.
The 2021 US Open champion Raducanu saved a break point stamping her first hold for 1-3 after 22 minutes.
Bounding around the crushed red brick with aggressive intent, Gauff snapped a bounce smash to hold for 4-1 then scored her second break for 5-1 after 31 minutes.
A frustrated Raducanu found some forehand fire in the seventh game. A flurry of forehand strikes down the line helped her saved four set points.
Undeterred, Gauff converted her fifth set point on a wild Raducanu return to take a one-set lead after 39 minutes.
Though Raducanu registered solid holds to take a 2-1 second-set lead, Gauff overwhelmed the Miami Open quarterfinalist with her five-game run to close.
Even when Raducanu created space, Gauff exploited it.
Sliding a strong serve wide, Raducanu got the short reply she wanted, but with a wide of expanse of court open down the line she played her backhand crosscourt. Gauff was waiting and blocked a backhand reply down the line breaking again for 5-2.
On her second match point, Gauff drew an errant forehand return, raising her 2025 record to 22-7, including winning eight of her last nine matches.