Garcia sends Gauff crashing
MIAMI (AFP) — France’s Caroline Garcia upset world No. 3 Coco Gauff beating the American 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Miami Open.
Garcia, who had beaten four-times Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka in straight sets on Sunday, continued her inspired form as she defeated Gauff on her home court in one hour 43 minutes.
After a thrilling encounter, which ebbed and flowed, Garcia, ranked 27th in the world, emerged to face a last-eight meeting with the winner of the match between Romanian Sorana Cirstea and American Danielle Collins.
The victory was Garcia’s first against a top 10 opponent since late 2022 but her third career win (3-2) against Gauff, who she also beat in the 2022 US Open.
“It was definitely a great match and a great win for me. And the last couple of months have not been easy. And definitely today, following the match of yesterday, it means a lot. And it was some great tennis,” she said.
‘It is a tough loss.’
Garcia said her strategy of playing aggressive tennis to put pressure on the American had paid off.
“I try to always be very aggressive and take some time away and it looks like Coco doesn’t really like it,” she said.
“We had some good battles in the past. I always try to go as much as I can with confidence and conviction in my shot. And to add a tie record with Coco gave me confidence that I had to go for it, especially after the match with Naomi,” she added.
Gauff, who hails from South Florida, was disappointed not to have progressed further in front of a home crowd.
“It is a tough loss,” she said.
“It was basically an up and down match. She played aggressively, which I knew was coming and I think it was really important for me to just change the height of the ball.”
“I did that well for the majority of the second set. And then starting off the third with an early break, I think just completely changed the momentum,” the American added.
Fourth seed Elena Rybakina defeated American Madison Keys 6-3 7-5 to set up a quarter-final with Greece’s Maria Sakkari.