Berlin Open: Gauff into quarter-finals

American Coco Gauff, the top seed, moved into the last eight of the Berlin Open by winning against Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (6), 6-2 at Rot-Weiss Tennis Club on Thursday.

Gauff, ranked No 2, will face the winner of the match between Linda Noskova and Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the No 8 seed, next.

“I’m a different player from last year. She’s a great player to play, especially on grass,” said Gauff after the match. “So I knew it was going to be tough.”

At one stage, Gauff was down 6-3 in the opening set tiebreak, but clawed her way back into the match.

“When you’re down in those points in tiebreaks, I just tell myself just to get one, and then one point turns into two,” she explained. “I was just hoping she wouldn’t ace me on one of those points. I was just hoping I could get a ball in the court.”

Alexandrova, ranked No 20, defeated Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia (6-4, 6-4) in the previous round of the Berlin tournament.

Berlin WTA 500, other last 16 results (Rot-Weiss Tennis Club, grass, USD 922.573, most recent results first):

• Daria Kasatkina vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Linda Noskova vs. Ons Jabeur
• Jessica Pegula vs. Donna Vekic: thursday
• Katerina Siniakova (Q) beat Qinwen Zheng (6): 6-4, 6-4
• Anna Kalinskaya beat Marketa Vondrousova (5): 5-5 ret.
• Elena Rybakina (3) beat Veronika Kudermetova (Q): 6-4, 7-5
• Victoria Azarenka beat Zeynep Sonmez (Q): 6-3, 6-3