Coco Gauff, seeded number 3, had to grit her teeth on Wednesday to overcome the Czech Karolina Pliskova, 36th player in the world, in three sets, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, in the round of 16 of the WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai.
In the quarter-finals, the winner of the US Open 2023 will face the Russian Anna Kalinskaya, 40th at the WTA, who for her part surprised the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (N.9) in two sets, 6-4, 7 -5.
A week after her surprise elimination as soon as she entered the competition in Doha – against another Czech, Katerina Siniakova -, Gauff believed she was heading towards a new disillusionment: she completely missed the first set, during which she accumulated eight double faults and won only 21% of his second balls, dropping his serve three times.
After losing 6-2, however, she managed to recover in the second set, in turn taking her opponent’s serve three times. If the young American (19 years old) was broken twice, she, in a striking contrast, did not commit a double fault, winning 6-4.
The decisive set remained undecided for a long time, but the semi-finalist of the Australian Open in January made the difference by taking Pliskova’s serve again just before managing to conclude on her put in, in a little less two hours in total.
In addition to her future opponent Ostapenko, the Italian Jasmine Paolini, 26th in the world, also managed on Wednesday to take out a top seed, the Greek Maria Sakkari (N.8), beaten in two quick sets, 6-4, 6-2.
In the quarter, the 28-year-old player will challenge the number 4 seed, the Kazakh Elena Rybakina, who had more difficulty getting rid of the Polish Magdalena Frech, 7-6 (7/5), 3- 6, 6-4.
While Sabalenka (N.2), who made her comeback after her coronation in Melbourne a month ago, was eliminated from the start on Tuesday, the Polish Iga Swiatek, seeded N.1, faces the Ukrainian in the evening Elina Svitolina (N.15).
