Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, seeded 12th, set up a quarter-final with world number three Coco Cauff following her 6-2 6-4 victory over Russian eighth seed Mirra Andreeva.
Svitolina felt she had to “fight until the very last point” in a “nerve-wracking” match, although she dominated the key moments.
The 31-year-old broke Andreeva’s serve in three consecutive games in the opening set and also saved seven break points from a possible nine, including three in the second set, to avoid conceding a double-break.
Svitolina, a four-time quarter-finalist at the Australian Open, is on a nine-match winning streak in 2026 and has dropped six games or fewer in three of her four matches in Melbourne.
Gauff made it safely through to the quarter-finals in Melbourne for a third successive year with a resilient win over Czech 19th seed Karolina Muchova.
The world number three raced through the first set, but Muchova pulled back in the second before Gauff held her nerve to serve out the 6-1 3-6 6-3 victory on her fourth match point.
Gauff, a two-time major champion, has gone on to win all four tournaments in which she has faced Muchova – including the 2023 US Open.
However, she has never reached the final at Melbourne.
Speaking after her win, Gauff credited her run to the last eight to “trusting myself”.
“My history has been tough with the serve but I think today was great, there was one loose serve in the second set but after that it was pretty good,” she said.
“That’s the biggest thing, just trusting myself and knowing that I’ve put in the work in practice and knowing it will show up in the matches.
Gauff then wrote “confidence is the key” on a camera lens after the victory, which improved her head-to-head record with Muchova to 5-0.