Ashleigh Barty and Coco Gauff roll on in Charleston, Garbine Muguruza bows out through injury

WTA Tour
Coco Gauff swinging

Top seed Ashleigh Barty and Coco Gauff booked their places in the quarter-final of the Charleston Open with contrasting wins, but Garbine Mugurza exited after picking up an injury.

World No 1 Barty made it eight wins in a row as she followed up her Miami Open title run with a 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-4 victory over Shelby Rodgers in two hours and 23 minutes.

Both players broke once in the opening set before the Australian edged the tie-breaker while there were five breaks of serve in the second set with Shelby taking it 3-2.

Barty broke early in the decider, but the American drew level in game eight only for the Australian to get the decisive break in game nine.

“Shelby’s an exceptional ball-striker, she always makes you work very hard for every single point, every single match, and tonight was no different,” Barty said after the match.

Up next is Spaniard Paula Badosa, who beat Caty McNally 6-3, 6-3.

Also in the top half of the draw, former US Open champion Sloane Stephens beat Ajla Tomlmanovic 6-3, 6-4 to set up a quarter-final clash against Veronika Kudermetova.

In the bottom half, teenager Gauff held off fellow American Lauren Davis 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) to book a last-eight encounter against Ons Jabeur, who was a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 winner of Alize Cornet.

However, two-time Grand Slam champion Muguruza’s campaign at the WTA 500 tournament came to an abrupt end as she was forced to retire while leading 6-0, 2-2 against Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva.

The Spaniard picked up a leg injury and felt “it didn’t make sense” to continue playing.

“I was already feeling some pain in my first match,” she said.

“The switch of hard courts to clay was tough, and in a very short amount of time. I started very well, and all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in my leg, and it got worse. I didn’t want to continue without playing my best tennis. It didn’t make sense to me.”

Putintseva will face the unseeded Danka Kovinic of Montenegro after the world No 91 upset two-time Wimbledon champion and third seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-1.

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Ashleigh Barty Coco Gauff Garbine Muguruza

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