Gauff into last eight at full tilt

Story of the match

Ahead of her most consistent major, Gauff warmed up with back-to-back WTA 1000 finals in Madrid and Rome and despite having come up empty-handed in both, she did enough to ensure her return to the world’s top two.

It was a mantle she looked increasingly comfortable carrying given she is yet to drop a set in this campaign and she was completely in control from the outset.

Rarely on the back foot, she dictated at will and opened a 4-0 lead in just 13 minutes. The only wobble came when serving for the first set.

Six break points were saved during a 10-minute struggle – a third of the entire first set – before she held her nerve to keep her scorecard unblemished.

Overawed early on, Alexandrova had already matched her best run at a major – a fourth round at Wimbledon two years ago – and had the nous to realise she needed to press for more.

Consistency underscores the 30-year-old’s game but against Gauff in the second week of a Slam this would not cut it.

From four encounters, Alexandrova has beaten her opponent once, but that came on grass in Berlin two years ago and they had never crossed paths on clay.

Still, she boasted five top-10 wins this year alone – second only to Aryna Sabalenka – and when she held for 1-0 it set the tone for a far more evenly matched second set.

Inroads were now frequently being made on Gauff’s serve thanks to a more aggressive mindset, and she finally landed her first break to level at 4-all, but any threat of a deciding set was quickly snuffed out.

The American, a finalist three years ago, closed it out in a flurry for a meeting with Australian Open champion Madison Keys or unseeded Hailey Baptiste.

Key stats

A 15th tour-level win on clay for the season left Gauff trailing only Elina Svitolina’s 19 for the most on the surface this year.

The 21-year-old became the youngest woman to notch five singles quarter-finals at a single major since Venus Williams at the 2001 US Open, and Gauff (21 years and 73 days) has also become the fourth-youngest in the Open era to make five straight last-eight showings at Roland Garros after Martina Hingis, Steffi Graf and Conchita Martinez.

The pair were even on winners (14) but Gauff’s pressure was telling as her opponent committed 33 unforced errors, almost double the American's count.

Alexandrova was also left to rue a poor break-point conversion rate of just one from nine.

Gauff’s assessment

The American was prepared to weather any storm, particularly in a tense second set; she accepted when her opponent painted the lines there was little she could do.

“I think the whole match I played well to be honest,” she said. “She stepped up her game in the second. Some balls I thought I hit a good shot and she'd hit a winner on the line. If she wins like that I can keep my head up high, so overall I think I played great.”

Her notable clay-court form leading into Roland-Garros had provided the necessary match-play and the chance to get a feel for the movement again.

“I think I move well on clay and [am] really comfortable with sliding and moving on the surface,” Gauff said. “I think that's what my results credit to. I think the physicality – it's the most physical surface for sure and I do well in that department.”