No. 13 seed Elise Mertens picked a fine time to collect her first victory against No. 3 seed Coco Gauff on Wednesday at the China Open in Beijing.
The Belgian defeated Gauff for the first time in six meetings and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-3 win in 78 minutes.
Mertens only faced one break point and converted 8 of 12 break chances against Gauff, the 2024 Beijing champion who counted eight double faults among her 34 unforced errors.
“I kind of felt like she was dropping a bit in energy,” Mertens said. “I tried to push myself. But I know she’s a great competitor. It’s never done against her.”
Gauff said her energy was down after dealing with an “insane” amount of racist comments on social media following a controversial point during her victory in the previous round against Chinese teenager Sun Xinran.
“It has been kind of draining, I’m not going to lie,” Gauff told reporters when asked if the abusive comments had affected her. “I just turn off my phone and move on. There’s nothing you can do.”
It was the 10th career top-five win for Mertens, who moved a step closer to her first semifinal at the WTA 1000 level or higher since Dubai in 2021.
Mertens will face another former China Open winner in the quarterfinals in 2023 champion and No. 8 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland. Swiatek posted a 6-1, 6-3 victory against 10th-seeded Iva Jovic in 95 minutes.
No. 6 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and China’s Qinwen Zheng will meet in another quarterfinal.
Svitolina saved 10 of 12 break points in a 6-2, 6-3 victory against No. 21 seed Ann Li in 91 minutes.
Zheng needed 2 hours and 11 minutes to complete a 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 victory against Armenia’s Alina Charaeva.
“I had a great match today. Especially in the first set, I played really aggressive,” Zheng said in her post-match interview. “But I think there were ups and downs in the second set. I didn’t keep the same focus. I’m really grateful for all (of you) in the crowd who cheered for me tonight. The third set was a really tough battle and I’m glad that in the end I got the win.”
Between Beijing and Wuhan, Zheng has now reached three WTA 1000 quarterfinals on home soil, matching Li Na and Zhang Shuai for the most by a Chinese player since the format was introduced in 1990.
–Field Level Media
