But now the 21-year-old is back at the WTA<\/a> 1000 in Ohio, an event she claimed for the first time in 2023.<\/p>\n Gauff faced Lucia Bronzetti in the fourth round in Cincinnati, which was just her second match of the tournament after she was given a walkover by Dayana Yastremska in the previous round.<\/p>\n Coco Gauff<\/a> faced Bronzetti for the first time since the 2024 Indian Wells Masters. The world number two emerged victorious that day, as she did in their first meeting Saint-Gaudenst, France, back in 2019.<\/p>\n Gauff suffered a break of serve in each set, but she reversed the deficit each time as she wrapped up a 6-2, 6-4 victory against the Italian in one hour and 20 minutes.<\/p>\n Gauff at times looked tentative on the forehand, but it held at important moments and her backhand pushed Bronzetti into uncomfortable positions on court.<\/p>\n Sky Sports commentator Annabel Croft<\/a> watched the match and during the contest the 59-year-old named one shot would like to see Gauff implement much more during her matches.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so interesting to see Gauff throwing an occasional slice backhand into the mix. When we watch Muchova play, she is one of the few places who uses the slice backhand down the line,\u201d Croft said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw one in a rally from Coco Gauff but I would love to see that slice backhand used a lot more. I just think it can cause so many problems for players, particularly when they have that exaggerated grip, the slice backhand to the forehand side is so uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n Gauff\u2019s latest victory means she has now reached 19 WTA 1000 quarter-finals before turning 22.<\/p>\n She has surpassed Serena Williams\u2019<\/a> tally of 18 and is now third on the all-time list behind Maria Sharapova with 20, and Martina Hingis with 39.<\/p>\n Gauff will now take on either one of the 2024 Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini<\/a> or last year\u2019s champion at SW19, Barbora Krejcikova in the Cincinnati Open<\/a> quarter-finals.<\/p>\n Gauff lost to the Czech player when they last met at the 2024 WTA Finals. Krejcikova was the only player to beat the world number two at the season-ending championships a year ago before Gauff claimed glory in Riyadh.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Gauff has lost her last two meetings with Paolini, both in straight sets on the clay in Stuttgart and Rome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff has booked her spot in the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters. The American is searching for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[32671,7510,101,118,56,54,55,7512],"class_list":{"0":"post-67246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-annabel-croft","9":"tag-coco-gauff","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-wta-tennis-players"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Coco](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1608566575-1024x647.jpg\")
Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty ImagesAnnabel Croft wants Coco Gauff to use the slice backhand more in her matches<\/p>\n![\"Coco](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2229430805-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Daniel Kopatsch\/Getty ImagesCoco Gauff overtakes Serena Williams on special WTA list after reaching Cincinnati Open quarter-finals<\/p>\n