Gauff overcomes slow start to roll past Samsonova, reach Stuttgart quarterfinals

Coco Gauff fell behind 3-0 in the opening set Thursday night in her second-round match against Liudmila Samsonova, but the reigning French Open champion responded with four straight games to take the lead and ultimately the set. From there, she took full control, rolling to a straight-sets victory.

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Gauff closed out a 7-5, 6-1 win in 1 hour and 36 minutes, pulling away as the match progressed to reach the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix quarterfinals for the third year in a row. It's her third win in three main-draw meetings against Samsonova.

“I started off a little bit rough,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “But I’m happy to get through today. I never really have easy first-round matches here in Stuttgart, so I guess the trend continued a bit today, but I’m happy to be in the next round.”

The win didn’t quite match the drama of her three-set victories over Veronika Kudermetova and Sachia Vickery in her opening matches in 2023 and 2024, but it briefly looked like it might head that direction late in the first set.

After Gauff stormed back to take a 4-3 lead, Samsonova momentarily righted the ship, holding for 4-all and then earning her third break of the match for 5-4. But the World No. 21 couldn’t serve out the set, and Gauff broke right back for 5-5. It was the first of three straight games Gauff won to close out a 62-minute opening set, a surge that sparked a Gauff run that saw her win 25 of 30 points and carried her to a 4-0 lead in the second.

Gauff faced her last real test serving for 5-0 in a game that featured five deuces, three double faults and two break points faced. She escaped with an ace to save the second break point and a backhand winner to earn game point before finally holding.

Samsonova held once more to avoid the bagel, but Gauff wrapped up the match with a routine hold, setting up a quarterfinal meeting with Karolina Muchova. In the second set, she hit 12 winners to just seven unforced errors and finished the day with seven aces and six breaks of serve overall.

The matchup with Muchova could give the 22-year-old a strong chance at her first Stuttgart semifinal, as she leads the head-to-head 6-0. Gauff, though, downplayed the significance of that record.

“It’s pro sports,” Gauff said. “Anybody can win on any day. Obviously you take what you did well in the last matches and try to do it again, but like I said, anything can happen. She’s a great player. She’s a great clay-court player too. So I don’t take any of those matches into account. I just try to focus on the goals I have for tomorrow and hopefully I can come out with the win.”

Muchova earned her spot in the last eight with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 win over Elise Mertens earlier Thursday. She trailed 6-1, 2-0 before rallying to victory in the first match between the two in over five years. The meeting served as the rubber match in their head-to-head, which Muchova now leads 2-1.