Coco Gauff leads American surge into Miami Open quarterfinals

The American trio of No. 4 seed Coco Gauff, No. 5 seed Jessica Pegula, and unseeded Hailey Baptiste advanced to the Miami Open quarterfinals with victories Monday in Miami Gardens, Fla.

A fourth American could join them, as No. 6 seed Amanda Anisimova faces Swiss 12th seed Belinda Bencic as part of the night session. The winner of that match draws Gauff in the quarters.

The other match on tap Monday night features No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan against Australia's Talia Gibson.

Gauff took a three-set battle with Romania's Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. It marks the first time the Boca Raton native has made the quarterfinals in Miami.

"I guess it wouldn't have to happen any other way than to put some work in," Gauff said. "I think in the previous times I've played here, I've had some tough matches. Maybe mentally wasn't in there. Today I just wanted to stay mentally in there."

Despite serving six double faults to just one ace, Gauff had a better day on her serve with 40 of 61 first-service points won (65.6%). By contrast, Cirstea won less than half of her first-serve points (32 of 66).

Pegula breezed past Romanian 34th seed Jaqueline Cristian 6-4, 6-1 in 68 minutes. After losing the final here in 2025, Pegula is one step closer to her second WTA 1000 title of 2026 after previously capturing the Dubai Championships.

Pegula was tremendous on her serve, winning 20 of 24 first-service points (83.3%) with six aces and no double faults.

Baptiste defeated a seeded player for the third straight round to reach her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal. After eliminating No. 19 seed Liudmila Samsonova of Russia and No. 9 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, Baptiste took down Latvian No. 25 Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-4 in the Round of 16.

Baptiste smashed 11 aces and saved 9 of 10 break points in her latest impressive effort.

"I think that I'm a pretty aggressive player," Baptiste said after the match. "I like to go after my shots, and I've had to learn to balance the aggressive and conservative game style and know when to actually pull the trigger. I've got a pretty good balance right now."

Her reward, though, is a matchup against World No. 1 and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian took care of business against No. 23 Qinwen Zheng of China, 6-3, 6-4.

No. 10 seed Victoria Mboko of Canada will meet Czech No. 13 Karolina Muchova in the quarters. Mboko fought past Russian eighth seed Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-0, while Muchova defeated No. 31 Alexandra Eala of the Philippines 6-0, 6-2 in an hour flat.