Last year’s top seed and defending champion Cori Coco Gauff (USA) advanced to the quarterfinals of the WTA 250 ASB Classic in Auckland (New Zealand) with a prize pool of 267,082 USD.
The 2023 US Open champion Cori Coco Gauff prevailed over Brenda Fruhvirtova (Czech Republic) by 2-0 (6:3, 6:0).
The 16-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova had no chance against the American tennis talent, who led by 3:2 in the first set and 5:0 in the second to easily reach the final success.
“She started really well, but I was able to raise my level, I served well and I think overall I played a great match today”, said Cori Coco Gauff, who is preparing for the Australian Open.
Her next opponent will be the eighth-seeded Varvara Gracheva (France), who eliminated Lulu Sun (Switzerland) after 2-0 (6:3, 6:4).
The second-seeded Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) also advances to the quarter-finals. She defeated wild card Emma Raducanu (UK), the 2021 US Open champion, by 2-1 (6:7, 7:6, 6:1) in an extremely close match. Emma Raducanu will head into the Australian Open, which starts on January 14, confident of her fitness after returning to the court after a nine-month injury layoff. She played two marathon games in Auckland, coming through both unscathed despite playing with tape on her right hip today. Her match with Elina Svitolina lasted almost three hours.
Emma Raducanu led by 5:2 in the first set but eventually had to go through a tiebreak after 71 minutes. Elina Svitolina led early in the second set, but her opponent fought back to take the tiebreak. She won the first two points on Elina Svitolina’s serve, but then the former world’s number three Ukrainian player dominated and equalized after another 67 minutes. Elina Svitolina led 5:0 in the third set and closed the match after 6:1.
Seventh seed Petra Martic (Croatia) defeated Yue Yuan (China) by 2-0 (6:2, 6:2) and also continues to the quarterfinals.
