Former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic surprised third-seeded American Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday to achieve the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
The 28-year-old wild card, who gave start to daughter Bella in April of final yr, received 69% of her first-serve factors in a match that lasted 2 hours, 20 minutes.
Bencic, from Switzerland, returned the favor from the Australian Open in January, when Gauff received after dropping the primary set. The defeat got here the day earlier than Gauff’s twenty first birthday because the 2023 US Open champion was damaged at 4-4 within the remaining set after going up 40-0.
“Clearly, because of this you might be training and dealing exhausting all of your life, so it is tremendous good to play in this type of environment,” Bencic mentioned in her on-court interview. “The best way you cheered earlier than the match … I had chills and goosebumps and I form of simply put the serve into the court docket as a result of I used to be so nervous.”
Gauff began aggressively and dedicated 5 double faults within the first set, together with three in a single sport however was damaged solely as soon as en path to wrapping up the set in 51 minutes when Bencic despatched a forehand broad.
However Bencic was firing on all cylinders within the second set and, regardless of twice requiring medical consideration for foot and hand points, constructed a 4-1 lead earlier than securing it when Gauff returned a serve into the web.
Bencic took one other medical timeout earlier than the deciding set to have a hand blister tended to.
Gauff struggled together with her serve all through the event and had eight double faults towards Bencic, with solely 4 aces.
Bencic subsequent faces one other American, Australian Open champion Madison Keys, who rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-3 victory over Nineteenth-seeded Donna Vekic.
The 30-year-old No. 3 seed prolonged her successful streak to fifteen matches after trailing 5-3 and being two factors from defeat within the second set.
Prime-seeded Aryna Sabalenka cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Sonay Kartal, who was dealing with an opponent ranked within the high 10 for the primary time. She’s going to meet Liudmila Samsonova within the quarterfinals.
The Related Press and Reuters contributed to this report.