CNN
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Coco Gauff produced an impressive victory to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday, ultimately beating Belinda Bencic 5-7 6-2 6-1.
The victory confirms Gauff’s start to her unbeaten run through 2025 and marks her ninth consecutive win to start the year – a milestone she has now reached three times in her career. Only Margaret Court, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Serena Williams have had as many perfect starts to the season.
“It’s pretty crazy to be in the same stat line as the legends and I’m very grateful,” the No. 3 seed said during her on-court interview after being informed of the stats.
Afterward, she mourned the shutdown of popular social media site TikTok in the United States ahead of a ban expected to take effect on Sunday, drawing a broken heart on one of the television camera lenses near the pitch and writing: “RIP TikTok.”
“I hope it comes back. It’s really sad… I love TikTok. It’s like an escape. Honestly, I do this before matches,” she told reporters.
“I guess it will force me to read more books, to probably be a more productive human being. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.
Gauff’s form was such this year that she hadn’t even lost a set before playing Bencic.
But Bencic, the 2020 Olympic champion playing her first Grand Slam since returning from maternity leave, matched Gauff stride for stride in a hard-fought first set filled with long rallies.
Ultimately, the Swiss player beat Gauff at 4-4 after two tied marathons.
Gauff then engineered his own break point in the next game. With Bencic just two points away from winning the set, the American’s athleticism allowed her to run all over the court and fire a backhand winner down the line to seal the break.
But she couldn’t hold serve and Bencic broke again, before claiming a 7-5 victory in the first set in 62 minutes.
Gauff came out in full force in the second and won three straight to start, her more aggressive approach characterized by an overhead smash that made it 3-0.
From there, the 2023 US Open champion made things look easy, dropping just three games in the second and third sets.
“It’s funny because I felt like a few years ago I had a really bad flatline, where if I lost the first set I would lose the match, and I remember my dad told me: ‘You have to fight.’ you’, so every time I think about it and dig deeper,” she said afterwards.
Gauff will now face No. 11 seed Paula Badosa on Tuesday for a place in the semifinals.
Elsewhere, two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka beat 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva 6-1 6-2 to secure her own place in the quarter-finals.
