By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Monday, June 2, 2025
No. 2 Coco Gauff defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-0, 7-5 to advance to her fifth consecutive Roland Garros quarterfinal.
Photo credit: Jon Buckle/ROLEX
It was moving day in Paris.
Coco Gauff continued masterful march into an American Roland Garros reunion.
Striking with conviction, Gauff eliminated Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-0, 7-5 to score her fourth straight-sets win at this Roland Garros.
The 21-year-old Gauff accelerated into her fifth consecutive Roland Garros quarterfinal—and ninth Grand Slam quarterfinal overall.
"I think just honestly fighting for each match and each point [is key]," Gauff told the media in Paris. "Because I have learned in the last two tournaments, especially in Rome and Madrid, losing the opening set in the first round of both of those tournaments and making the final, it just shows you have to keep fighting for every match and keep fighting for every point, because anything can happen in a tournament.
"So I think if I want to be more consistent on tour, I think that's something I have to continue to do."
The second-seeded Gauff says red clay is her best surface and she’s showing it transforming terre battue into a launching pad with a 15-3 mark on dirt this season.
Today, Gauff served 59 percent and saved eight of nine break points defeating the dangerous Alexandrova for the fourth time in five meetings.
Gauff has now won 14 of his last 16 clay matches—her lone losses in that span to Jasmine Paolini in the Rome final and to No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the Madrid final—as her victory today ensures there will be at least one American woman in the Roland Garros final four.
The 2022 finalist Gauff will play a fellow American Grand Slam champion—reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys—for a semifinal spot.
Continuing her hunt for a calendar Grand Slam, Keys stopped No. 70 Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 7-5 scoring her 11th consecutive major match victory.
The 30-year–old Keys is 3-2 vs. Gauff, including winning their lone clay clash 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, at the 2024 Mutua Madrid Open.
"Maddie, I have known her for a long time," Gauff said. "I remember, I think it was maybe Miami Open, I was shadowing her as a junior. They let me shadow her.
"I sat at one of her Kindness Wins foundation events and things like that. I don't know if she remembers that."