DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Coco Gauff recovered from a slow start and a second-set argument with the chair umpire to beat Karolina Pliskova 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 and reach the Championship quarterfinals from Dubai on Wednesday.
Third-seeded Gauff ended Pliskova's 11-game winning streak.
The 19-year-old American raced to a 4-2 lead in the second set before a long exchange with chair umpire Pierre Bacchi. Gauff complained to Bacchi that he had called off her two-out serve only after Pliskova returned it to the net.
Gauff had to repeat her first serve and held to take a 5-2 lead.
The US Open champion said the discussion “fueled” her.
“It's okay. It's just a point. That happens in tennis. Players make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “For me everything went up.”
Gauff will face Anna Kalinskaya after the Russian beat ninth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 7-5.
World number one Iga Swiatek advanced to the quarterfinals by beating two-time Dubai champion Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-4.
Elena Rybakina, seeded fourth, had a harder time reaching the quarterfinals. She outlasted Magdalena Frech 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4.
Swiatek will next face sixth-seeded Qinwen Zheng, who eliminated Anastasia Potapova 6-3, 6-2. Rybakina has a quarterfinal match against Jasmine Paolini. The Italian defeated eighth seed Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-2.
The other quarterfinal match will be that of Marketa Vondrousova, seeded seventh, against Sorana Cirstea.
