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Roland Garros 2024: Gauff returns to QFs; Fritz & Navarro in last 16

Arthur Kapetanakis | June 02, 2024


Coco Gauff advanced to her fourth consecutive Roland Garros quarterfinal with a dominant win on Sunday, before Taylor Fritz and Emma Navarro bid to join her in the last eight with victories on Monday.

 

The third-seeded Gauff, a Paris finalist in 2022, has yet to drop a set this fortnight. The 20-year-old cruised in the quarters with a 6-1, 6-2 result against Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto; she has lost just 18 games across eight sets at the clay-court Slam.

Gauff won her first major title at the US Open last summer, but Roland Garros remains her best Slam in terms of match wins and winning percentage. Now 19-4 at the event, she boasts an 83% win rate—compared to her 78 percent success rate (14-4) in New York.

 

The American entered Paris behind a Rome semifinal run and is now focused on raising her game in the later rounds. Gauff will face eighth seed Ons Jabeur in the quarters and could meet world No. 1 and three-time champion Iga Swiatek in the semis.

 

"I definitely think that's what you want to do, is improve through each match," she said.

 

"Sometimes how you start is not necessarily how you finish a tournament. For me last week Rome was one of those where I went in not feeling great at all, and then I left feeling good about my game."

Coco Gauff has lost just 18 games in the first four rounds at Roland Garros. Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images.

Despite her untouchable form across four matches, Gauff has felt the effects of a rainy opening week at Roland Garros. Though all of her matches have been played on one of the tournament's two roofed stadiums, Court Philippe-Chatrier and Court Suzanne-Lenglen, the gloomy conditions have impacted her game and her outlook.

 

"This week I feel like I've been managing and playing well," she explained. "It's definitely, I feel, also 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.

 

"For me, this week at Roland Garros has been a little bit different than the past first weeks."

 

Gauff will begin her second week with a seventh matchup against 2022 US Open finalist Jabeur. Gauff leads their head-to-head 4-2, with straight-sets wins at Roland Garros in 2021 and at the WTA Finals in 2023. In between, Jabeur scored a straight-sets win of her own en route to the 2022 Berlin title.

Taylor Fritz is into the Roland Garros fourth round for the first time. Photo by Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images.
Fritz, Navarro ready for fourth-round tests

Both Fritz and Navarro are through to the Roland Garros last 16 for the first time. Fritz booked a showdown with two-time Paris finalist Casper Ruud via a 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(4), 5-7, 6-3 victory against Thanasi Kokkinakis on Saturday, his longest match of the tournament after four-set wins in each of the first two rounds.

 

The 12th seed played a memorable ATP Finals match against Ruud in 2022, falling just short in a third-set tiebreak—though Fritz still advanced to the knockout semifinals that week with wins in his two other round-robin contests.

 

Monday's meeting will be the pair's second overall and their first on clay, Ruud's favorite surface. But Fritz has proven plenty capable on the dirt this season. He reached his first clay ATP Tour final in Munich and backed that up with semifinal and quarterfinal runs at the ATP Masters 1000s in Madrid and Rome, respectively.

"I think I’m always pretty happy with my clay results, because I think people definitely count me out or don’t think I’m going to be that good on clay," Fritz said, as quoted on ATPTour.com. "So any time I can have some good clay results, I guess it feels good."

 

Navarro advanced to the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the first time with a 7-6(5), 7-6(3) win in an all-American matchup with 14th seed Madison Keys. Playing in just her sixth major, her best previous result was a third-round run at the Australian Open earlier this season.

 

Seeded 22nd, she will bid to pull off another upset against second seed Aryna Sabalenka on Sunday. Navarro won their lone previous meeting earlier this year in Indian Wells, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

 

For more from Roland Garros, visit the tournament's official website.

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