By Shrivathsa Sridhar
PARIS (Reuters) – Last year’s French Open runner-up Coco Gauff overcame an early wobble to outclass Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 7-5 6-2 and reach the quarter-finals, where she could face a potential rematch with holder Iga Swiatek.
Gauff won her previous clash with Schmiedlova in Madrid last year, dropping only two games, and the American made a quick start again with a break in the opening game to pull away and leave her 100th-ranked opponent facing an uphill task.
But 28-year-old Schmiedlova, playing in the second week of a major for the first time, mounted a late fightback from 5-2 down to draw level only to squander her opportunity and allow sixth seed Gauff to edge a tense first set.
The 19-year-old Gauff tightened her grip in the next set, working the angles and deploying the drop shot to devastating effect as she closed out the victory without any more drama.
Gauff will now await the winner of the fourth round match between world number one Swiatek and Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Paris; Editing by Ken Ferris)
