Coco Gauff and Belinda Bencic will take a familiar rivalry to an unfamiliar surface in the fourth round of Wimbledon after both players won their third-round matches in three thrilling sets on Saturday at the All England Club.
After escaping Solana Sierra in the second round — the Argentine served for the match in the third set and led 7-4 in the deciding 10-point tiebreak — Gauff needed to dig deep again against fellow American Claire Liu to reach the fourth round at the grass-court major for a fourth time. She had three match points at 6-3, 5-4 before Liu rallied to force a final set. Nonetheless, a break of serve in the opening game of the final set put Gauff back on course in a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-2 triumph.
Last year’s semifinalist Bencic, meanwhile, had to win a third-set tiebreak of her own in ousting Anna Kalinskaya 6-4, 4-6, 7-6[6] after previously leading by a break twice in the third set to reach the Round of 16 for a fifth time.
Gauff has beaten Bencic in five of their previous seven meetings, but none of those took place on grass. Five of their head-to-head matches to date have gone three sets, and Gauff is eying her first-ever berth in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
More numbers that mattered for both players — in the third round, and ahead of their Round of 16 clash — include:
5: Gauff is now 5-0 against fellow Americans on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz this year. Bencic is now 5-1 against Kalinskaya all-time, too.
22: Bencic now owns 22 main-draw wins at Wimbledon, which is the joint-most in her career at a single tournament. She also has 22 career US Open main-draw wins.
23: Gauff is now 23-7 in three-set matches at Grand Slams in her career — the third best winning percentage in the Open Era.
42: There’s more than one way to win a tennis match. Bencic struck 42 winners in her victory against Kalinskaya — while Gauff only hit 18 against Liu.
Gauff admits that getting past the fourth-round hurdle and into the Wimbledon quarterfinals would be a “big accomplishment,” and says that digging deep twice in the first three rounds will serve her well in the second week.
“I think I’m not playing my best tennis — I think today, I didn’t serve as well as I did in my last match but I held when I needed to,” she said. “I definitely feel more confident after the last few matches. Both of the opponents I played are high-level players and very good grass-court players. Belinda will be the same. She’s good on this surface as well, so it will definitely be a tough one.”
