Coco Gauff outlasted Mirra Andreeva 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the Italian Open quarter-finals in Rome on Wednesday to book her place in the last four. Gauff had to dig out of trouble after dropping the opening set, but she found her rhythm in the second and held off the Russian teenager in the decider.
The win stretched Gauff’s run against Andreeva to four straight matches, a streak that underlined how difficult the matchup has become for the rising star from Russia. Andreeva still produced some brilliant tennis, but Gauff’s steadier finish carried the day in a contest that flashed the quality and nerve that have made both players central figures in the women’s draw this week.
Flashscore.com described it as an epic battle, and the scoreline backed that up. Gauff’s place in the semi-finals gives her another chance to push deeper at a tournament where the women’s bracket had reached the quarter-final stage and where every match now carries more weight than the last.
The result also fits a busy day in Rome for the men’s and women’s draws. Daniil Medvedev beat Thiago Tirante 6-3, 6-2 to move into the quarter-finals, while Andrey Rublev battled back from a set down to beat Nikoloz Basilashvili in three sets and join him there. Jannik Sinner, meanwhile, defeated Andrea Pellegrino 6-2, 6-3 in his fourth-round match.
One of the day’s biggest shocks came when Alexander Zverev lost to Luciano Darderi after holding four match points. Darderi saved the match, won the second-set tiebreak and then ran away with the deciding set 6-0, turning what looked like a routine finish into one of the most dramatic reversals of the tournament.
On the women’s side, Sorana Cirstea beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 7-6 to reach her maiden Rome semi-final and her fourth WTA 1000 semi-final overall. For Gauff, the task now is simpler to state than to complete: keep the level that carried her through a tense afternoon and see whether the momentum can last one more round in Rome.
