'Speechless': Gibson beats Paolini for first top 10 win, into first WTA quarterfinal

Talia Gibson's magical run at Indian Wells continues! The Australian qualifier, who just earned her first two top 20 wins against Clara Tauson and Ekaterina Alexandrova over the past few days, one-upped that with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 win over No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini -- her first top 10 victory.

The 21-year-old reaches her first quarterfinal at any tour-level event on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, and awaits the winner of Linda Noskova and Alexandra Eala for a spot in the semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open.

"Speechless. This is becoming more of a fairytale for me every single day," Gibson said in her on-court interview. "Just at the moment, I just have a lot of confidence in how I am playing, especially after the Aussie summer."

Quick hits: What the win means?

• Gibson becomes the first singles qualifier since Lesia Tsurenko in 2015 to reach the quarterfinals at the BNP Paribas Open.
• She's the fifth Australian qualifier in the last 36 years to reach the quarterfinal at a WTA 1000 or Tier I event.
• At 21 years and 259 days old, she's the youngest player to reach the quarterfinal of her first WTA 1000 event since Elena Rybakina -- 20 years and 98 days old -- advanced to the quarterfinals at the 2019 Wuhan Open

*Data courtesy of Opta Facts

How it happened?

Gibson scores late break in first set: The opening set was neck-and-neck throughout. Gibson struggled throughout the first game and a half before finding her groove with a mixture of backhand and forehand winners. Paolini got the early break to go up 3-1, though Gibson brought the match back on the serve the next game with a few down-the-line winners.

They would hold serve the rest of the way until Gibson scored the pivotal break to go up 6-5. It was only fitting the Australian hit a backhand winner to close the first set on her service game as Paolini had just nine winners to Gibson's 18 in the opening set. 

Throughout the first and third sets, Gibson excelled at stretching Paolini wide, forcing low-pace and weak returns that set up winners. In total, she recorded 42 winners, 36 of which came in the first and third sets. 

Paolini responds in second: Immediately in the second set, it was evident that Paolini wasn't going to go down without a fight. The Italian had finally some rhythm in the match, and sprinted to a 3-0 lead in the set. Paolini seemed to make the match more difficult for Gibson, who opened the first three games with nine unforced errors to the Italian's zero. 

Paolini executed a more clever shot strategy, including a variety of drop shots. It was only fitting she won the set on a drop shot that caught Gibson off guard, the same way she went up 15-0 in the opening game.

Gibson's third-set bounce back: Simply, Gibson had nothing to lose in this match. She entered the tournament 95 spots behind Paolini in the PIF WTA Rankings and hadn't played a tour-level event since the Australian swing. She rather spent additional time in her native Australia and won a W75 and reached the semifinals of another, both in Brisbane.

The third-set had a first-set feel, but the level and quality of her backhand winners were essentially flawless. Gibson got the early break on Paolini's serve and never looked back. She almost didn't drop a game in the third set -- she had two break point opportunities in the lone game Paolini won -- and closing the match on two more winners felt only fitting for Gibson.

More to come...