American teenager Coco Gauff hit one backhand around the net post in the first set along the way to earning a berth in the French Open quarterfinals for the second consecutive year.
The 18-year-old American took over from 4-all in the opening set en route to beating No. 31 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-4, 6-0 at Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday.
Gauff burst onto the scene at Wimbledon when she was 15 by becoming the youngest qualifier in tournament history, beating Venus Williams and getting all the way to the fourth round.
Her first Grand Slam quarterfinal came in Paris in 2021, when she lost to eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova, and now she’s made it that far again.
The 18th-seeded Gauff’s next opponent will be 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens of the United States or No. 23 Jil Teichmann of Switzerland.
Also Sunday, US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez moved into the quarterfinals at Roland Garros for the first time with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Amanda Anisimova.
The 19-year-old Fernandez had more than twice as many winners (35) as unforced errors (17) and continued her run of impressive returning at the tournament. She broke Anisimova six times and now has won 23 of her opponents’ service games through four matches.
Fernandez had never won more than two consecutive main-draw matches on clay until this trip to Paris.
The Canadian made a breakthrough last year at the US Open by making it all the way to the final before losing to Emma Raducanu in a matchup between a pair of unseeded teenagers.
Fernandez, the youngest player to win a WTA title in 2022, is seeded 17th at the French Open and will play Italy’s Martina Trevisan of Italy next.
The 27th-seeded Anisimova was a semifinalist at Roland Garros in 2019 at age 17. The American eliminated four-time major champion Naomi Osaka in the first round this year.
The 59th-ranked Trevisan reached the quarterfinals for the second time in three appearances. She grabbed the last four games and beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7-6 (10), 7-5 on Sunday.
Sasnovich served for the second set at 5-3 but got broken at love there, part of a stretch in which Trevisan collected 13 of 15 points.
Trevisan won her first WTA title at Rabat the week before the French Open began and is now on a nine-match winning streak. Eight of those victories came in straight sets.
She was a qualifier ranked 159th in 2020 when she made a surprising run to the French Open quarterfinals before losing at that stage to eventual champion Iga Swiatek.
Trevisan has lost in the first or second round in six other Grand Slam appearances.
The 47th-ranked Sasnovich beat major champions Angelique Kerber and Raducanu to get to the fourth round in Paris.
Sasnovich has never made it to the quarterfinals in 28 career major tournaments.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.