No.3 seed Coco Gauff raced into her fourth straight Roland Garros quarterfinal with a 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Elisabetta Cocciaretto in exactly an hour.

The US Open champion followed Iga Swiatek's 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Anastasia Potapova on Court Philippe-Chatrier, and started as if on a mission to match the No.1 seed. Gauff dropped just four points en route to a quick 5-0 lead.

Though Gauff was ultimately unable to match Swiatek's whitewash, she remained firmly in control of the rest of the match, delivering strong serving and superb defense to keep Cocciaretto at bay. She will next face either No.8 seed Ons Jabeur or Clara Tauson.

"This week I feel like I've been managing and playing well," Gauff said afterwards. "It's definitely, I feel, tough conditions to play in. It's just really slow and muggy. The weather makes you maybe not as hyped up for your match just naturally. This week at Roland Garros has been a little bit different than the past first weeks."

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Here are the key numbers from the American's win:

3: Gauff now owns a 3-0 record against Cocciaretto in the pros (the Italian won their first junior encounter back at the 2018 Australian Open). Their first clay-court contest was also the least competitive: Gauff's victories over Cocciaretto at Guadalajara 2022 and Dubai this year both featured one tight set.

19: Gauff struck 19 winners over the course of the match, outweighing her 15 unforced errors. Conversely, Cocciaretto had just seven winners to 21 unforced errors. The World No.52's forehand, which had been key to her upsets of Beatriz Haddad Maia and Liudmila Samsonova in the first week, was not as potent against Gauff's speed.

5: Gauff dropped just five points behind her first serve all match (and only eight behind her second -- five of which were double faults). She was broken just once, in the second game of the second set having just gone up a break. Gauff wasted no time in regaining her advantage, capturing the Cocciaretto serve again for 2-1; following that, she did not face another break point.

5: Gauff's volleying skills were on show as she won five out of six points at net. This included arguably her finest shot of the match: in the penultimate game, she brought up break point by tracking a Cocciaretto drop shot down and then reflexing away a backhand volley winner.

 

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