Fifth-seeded Coco Gauff breezed past No. 3 Jessica Pegula in an all-American quarterfinal match Thursday at the Rothesay International in Eastbourne, England.
Gauff fired three aces en route to a 6-3, 6-3 win in just 68 minutes. Gauff converted five of seve break points to advance to the semifinals, where she’ll play another fellow American, Madison Keys.
The unseeded Keys scored a 6-4, 6-1 win over Petra Martic of Croatia.
Meanwhile, No. 2 seed Caroline Garcia of France was forced to retire in the second set, trailing No. 9 Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 2-1.
Italian Camila Giorgi also advanced when Jelena Ostapenko retired after the first set. Giorgi won the opener 7-6 (8) in one hour and 12 minutes.
Bad Homburg
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland continued her grass court tuneup with a dominating 6-3, 6-2 over No. 9 Anna Blinkova of Russia at Bad Homburg, Germany.
Swiatek draws Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti in the semifinals. Bronzetti posted a 6-4, 6-3 upset of No. 8 seed Varvara Gracheva of France.
Also, Emma Navarro advanced when Rebeka Masarova of Spain retired in the second set with the players knotted at 1-1. Masarova took the first set 7-6 (2).
The other quarterfinal between Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Repuboic and second-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia was suspended due to darkness. The match will pick up in the third set after Siniakova won the first set 7-5 and Samsonova the second, 6-4. The match is already eight minutes shy of two hours.
–Field Level Media