By Clare Lovell
LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) – Coco Gauff reached her first Wimbledon quarter-final late on Sunday, overcoming Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic 4-6 6-3 6-4 in a topsy turvy match under the roof on Court One.
Neither player was at her best after a long wait to come on court but, while 11th seed Bencic, 29, started the steadier, seventh seed Gauff, 22, proved the more adventurous, hitting 35 winners to Bencic’s 19 though she also produced 46 unforced errors and nine double faults.
Bencic, a semi-finalist here last year and Olympic champion in 2021, took the first set on her third set point when the erratic Gauff dumped a return into the net.
Gauff, a favourite with the Wimbledon crowd since she reached the fourth round as a bubbly 15-year-old in 2019, found her range in the second set, breaking Bencic’s serve twice and dropping her own only once. She produced a drop shot and an exquisite lob to take the match into a third set.
Playing some inspired tennis and finding the corners of the court, Gauff had Bencic on the back foot in the third set.
With the clock ticking down to Wimbledon’s 11 pm closure deadline, Gauff set up match point with a smash and won the battle with a big serve that Bencic could not return.
Gauff will face fellow American Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals.
(Reporting by Clare Lovell; editing by Clare Fallon)
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