PARIS (AP) — Quite a trip to Paris in the springtime for
18-year-old American Coco Gauff: She celebrated
graduating from high school — an achievement saluted via social media by former first lady Michelle Obama — and now is into the
French Open quarterfinals for the second consecutive year.
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Learning as she goes, Gauff took control of a tight opening set against No. 31 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium on Sunday and grabbed the last eight games to pull away for a 6-4, 6-0 victory in the fourth round at Roland Garros.
"You're never going to play your best tennis in a Slam every moment of the match, but I think I'm getting better and better," said Gauff, who is seeded 18th at the clay-court major tournament, "and I think, mentally, I can't ask for much more from myself in each match."
Next up will be a match against Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion and 2018 French Open runner-up, or No. 23 seed Jil Teichmann of Switzerland.
The other quarterfinal on the bottom half of the draw will be a meeting between left-handers: No. 17 Leylah Fernandez, a 19-year-old Canadian who
reached the final at last year's U.S. Open, against 59th-ranked Martina Trevisan of Italy, who also got to the quarterfinals in Paris two years ago.
Fernandez compiled more than twice as many winners, 35, as unforced errors, 17, and broke serve a half-dozen times to beat 20-year-old American Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 on a chilly, windy day. Trevisan grabbed the last four games and eliminated Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7-6 (10), 7-5.
"Every time I step out on the court, I still have something to prove," said Fernandez, who was ranked only 73rd last September when she beat four-time major champion Naomi Osaka on the way to being the runner-up to Emma Raducanu at Flushing Meadows. "I still have that mindset I'm the underdog. I'm still young."
Gauff, of course, is even younger.
A 2021, she was the youngest French Open quarterfinalist in 15 years, but frittered away five set points in the opener of a loss to eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova.
