Staff Reporter.
@FrenchOpen.
Teenager Coco Gauff reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final as she dominated Ons Jabeur at the French Open.
The American, who won the 2018 junior title here, beat the tricky Tunisian 6-3 6-1.
Greece’s Maria Sakkari, joined her as a first-time quarter-finalist after knocking out last year’s runner-up and fourth seed Sofia Kenin 6-1 6-3.
It leaves eighth seed Iga Swiatek as the highest ranked woman left.
The Polish defending champion, 20, plays her fourth-round match against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in Monday’s night session (20:00 BST)
The winner of that match will take on Sakkari, whose previous best in Paris was the third round in 2018 and 2020.
Sakkari, 25, leapt out to a 4-0 lead over Kenin and although the 22-year-old American rallied to get one of the breaks back, the Greek broke once more before clinching the first set, serving to love.
Kenin rallied at 1-5 down, saving a match point, and then breaking a nervous Sakkari, who made no mistake with her second match point
Gauff, 17, widely tipped as a future major champion, beat Jabeur in just 53 minutes and has yet to drop a set at the tournament.
“I am super happy to reach my first Grand Slam quarter-final. I played really well today,” said the American, who dropped just nine points on serve against 26th-ranked Jabeur.
At 17 years and 86 days old, Gauff is the youngest woman to reach the last eight of a Slam in the singles since Nicole Vaidisova, who was 17 years and 44 days old when she played in the French Open quarter-finals in 2006.
She stormed into the spotlight two years ago when, as a 15-year-old, she beat former champion Venus Williams in the first round at Wimbledon.
She has won two WTA titles – one on hard court, one on clay – and has reached the fourth round at three of the four majors.
Only world number one Ashleigh Barty, Aryna Sabalenka and Veronika Kudermetova have won more matches than Gauff in 2021.
Gauff will face Barbora Krejcikova in the next round after the Czech thrashed former finalist Sloane Stephens.