Gauff battles past Bencic to reach quarter-finals at Australian Open

American Coco Gauff, the No 3 seed, defeated Swiss Belinda Bencic 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 to move into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Sunday.

Gauff, ranked No 3, will play Spaniard Paula Badosa, the No 11 seed, next in what will be her eighth Grand Slam quarter-final.

“I thought in the first set she played great tennis and it was tough for me to play on the offence,” Gauff said. “I just played more aggressive in the second set and third, but I’m happy overall with how I played.”

It’s Gauff’s eighth win in her past nine Grand Slam matches that have gone three sets, a statistic she said she is proud of.

“A couple of years ago, I had a pretty bad stat on that; every time I lost the first set, I lost the match and my dad said, ‘we’ve got to get some fight’! Now when I lose the first set I think about that.”

The 20-year-old American won against Sofia Kenin (6-3, 6-3), Jodie Burrage (6-3, 7-5) and Canadian Leylah Fernandez, the No 30 seed (6-4, 6-2) ahead of her victory.

In the previous rounds of the first Grand Slam tournament of the 2025 season, Bencic, ranked No 294, beat Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, the No 16 seed (6-3, 7-6 (6)), Dutchwoman Suzan Lamens (6-1, 7-6 (3)) and Japanese Naomi Osaka (7-6 (3) ret.).

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 60.627.573, most recent results first):

• Eva Lys vs. Iga Swiatek
• Emma Navarro vs. Daria Kasatkina
• Veronika Kudermetova vs. Elina Svitolina
• Elena Rybakina vs. Madison Keys
• Paula Badosa beat Olga Danilovic: 6-1, 7-6 (2)
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (27) beat Donna Vekic (18): 7-6, 6-0
• Aryna Sabalenka (1) beat Mirra Andreeva (14): 6-1, 6-2