Coco Gauff has continued her strong run at the French Open by winning her round three meeting with Marie Bouzkova.
Gauff has emulated Venus Williams after defeating Bouzkova, with a fourth round clash with Ekaterina Alexandrova now up next.
The American is the second seed at the French Open, with Gauff yet to drop a set at the Grand Slam this time around.
She is behind only Aryna Sabalenka in the WTA rankings, and entered the French Open on the back of two final defeats.
Sabalenka beat Gauff in the Madrid Open final, with Jasmine Paolini doing the same in the Italian Open final.
Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesCoco Gauff makes Qinwen Zheng claim after her latest French Open win
But she is now more than up and running at Roland Garros, with Gauff having now analysed her latest win on clay in Paris.
Asked in her press conference about how Bouzkova essentially set up to try and outrally Gauff, the latter replied: “I remember there was a point in the second set and she ended up winning the point and I looked over and saw she was bent over and tired and I was aware my heartbeat wasn’t really high at all. It felt fine.
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Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images
“I know that is her game style, so I did feel like okay I can do this too. I had to generate a lot of the pace in those points, I felt like I could have been more aggressive as well.
“I definitely feel more confidence when people resort to that just because I feel like physically there are very few players on tour who can hang in there with me.
“I think the person so far that has pushed me to that has definitely been Qinwen [Zheng], we have played over three hours multiple times and she looks fine after the match and so do I but other than that I don’t think there are many people I have played who have done three hours and looked fine after the match.”
What is the head-to-head record between Coco Gauff vs Qinwen Zheng?
Gauff’s lengthy battle with Zheng is unsurprisingly still fresh in her memory, with the pair playing out that thriller in Rome last month.
She is clearly very confident about her endurance, which is, of course, a fantastic skill to have when games go the distance.
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And while Gauff believes Zheng has what it takes to really push her, the American has dominated their rivalry thus far.
The duo have met three times on the WTA Tour during their careers so far, with Gauff winning all three matches.
YearWinnerTournamentRoundScore2025Coco GauffItalian OpenSemi-final7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(4) 2024Coco GauffWTA FinalsFinal3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2)2024Coco GauffItalian OpenQuarter-final7-6(4), 6-1
And given both their fantastic abilities and their ages, many more battles can be expected in the years to come.
WTA number two Gauff is just 21 years old, while Chinese ace Zheng – who is seventh in the world rankings – is only 22.