Gauff Uses Stuttgart As Launchpad For French Open Title Defence

Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff (photo: Porsche AG)

STUTTGART/WASHINGTON, April 17, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)

Coco Gauff has arrived at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix this week, looking at the WTA 500 event as a challenging but valuable start to her clay court season.

While Gauff noted in her pre-tournament news conference earlier this week that the indoor clay conditions presented inside Porsche Arena are some of the most challenging on the WTA Tour, she welcomes the tough early test that Stuttgart provides in preparation for the remainder of the spring clay season leading up to the French Open.

Coco Gauff

Coco Gauff (photo: Porsche AG)

‟The surface here is special, a little bit slippery, and then there’s the indoor component. It’s different for sure,” Gauff said. Although she doesn’t feel most comfortable on indoor clay, Gauff feels it does have a positive upside. A good week in the capital city of southwest Germany’s Baden-Württemberg state, she feels, can help build her confidence for the coming weeks in Madrid, Rome and, ultimately Paris, where she’s the defending Roland-Garros champion.

Gauff was asked to describe her goals and what she hopes to accomplish this week in Stuttgart.

“I mean, my goals are just to focus on the game plan my coaches and I have worked on. Just focusing more on that than results,” she said.

“Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’ve been in this position before when defending US Open, got a little bit stressed. It would be great to win again. But I don’t want to, like, tear myself apart trying to do that.

“I think the main thing is just focusing on the process and knowing that the results will come hopefully in a couple weeks in Paris. If not, knowing that it will come again.”

On Thursday evening, Gauff faced World No. 21 Liudmila Samsonova of Russia with a third-straight quarterfinal berth at stake for the 22-year-old American from Florida. Although shaky in the early going, Gauff righted herself nicely and won the second-round match going away, 7-5, 6-1, in one hour and 36 minutes.

Gauff pulled out the 62-minute opening set with her fourth break of Samsonova’s serve. After she fell behind early by a double break at 3-0, Gauff went to work and won four straight games. She worked through some rough spots with her serving, which accounted for a pair of double breaks, and ultimately won more points on her returns than on her serve.

Then, while Samsonova went off court after the end of the first set, Gauff remained on court and worked on her serving game. It must have helped because she dropped just four points on her first serve in the second set en route to her 17th victory of the season.

Gauff held at love to begin the second set, immediately broke Samsonova, then held, again, at love for a 3-0 advantage. Soon, Gauff broke Samonsova at love to increase her lead to 4-0 and saved a pair of break points during a lengthy, 16-point fifth game to hold for an insurmountable 5-0 lead. Although Samsonova finally won a service game with her second ace, Gauff put away her seventh victory against a Top-30 opponent in the next game.

“I think just coming back after starting on a slow start, I thought I served pretty well, had seven aces, which is good for me,” Gauff said during her news conference afterward.

“Yeah, a lot of things to be positive about, and I think the second set was pretty much perfect tennis.”

By the end, Gauff had accumulated 20 winners – including seven aces – while committing 27 unforced errors. She converted six of 12 break points, while surrendering three breaks of her own serve, and took advantage of 35 unforced errors by her opponent. Gauff outpointed Samsonova 69-51.

On Friday, Gauff will carry a 6-0 lifetime head-to-head win-loss record into her quarterfinal match against No. 7 seed Karolina Muchova of Czechia.

“I honestly haven’t really talked to my team about the match yet,” Gauff admitted. “I would imagine, yeah, it’s going to be a different matchup because of different surface. She made finals of Roland-Garros, so she’s a great – she’s obviously a great player but great clay court player, too. … All the times when I played like these head-to-heads that I’m winning, I just treat each one like a new one, because usually they’re going to try something different if it’s not working.”

Rybakina wins opener, Fernandez next

In her first Stuttgart match since winning the 2024 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title, World No. 2 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan advanced to her fifth WTA Tour quarterfinal of the season with a straightforward 6-3, 6-4 victory over World No. 19 Diana Shnaider of Russia in one hour and 13 minutes. It was Rybakina’s fifth straight Stuttgart victory going back to the start of her 2024 title run, which rewarded her with a brand-new Porsche sports car, and it was also her first match against a left-handed player this season.

The top-seeded Rybakina wrapped up her 22nd victory of the 2026 season with her ninth ace of the second-round match, which gave her 28 winners for the afternoon. She converted two of four break points, including her second one which broke a 4-all tie in the second set. Rybakina consolidated the break with a pair of aces, including on match point.

“It’s my first match on clay and the first time I’ve played Diana,” Rybakina said during her on-court interview. “She’s physical and a little bit tricky. I’m happy with the effort and the win today but there are a lot of things I’d like to improve. I’m super happy to be back.”

With her eye on the grand prize of a brand-new sports car, this time a Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet, Rybakina revealed during her on-court interview that since winning the Stuttgart title in 2024, she’s earned her driver’s license – and took the driver’s test in the Porsche Taycan 4S Sport Turismo she won for being the 2024 champion.

“Winning the [2024] tournament gave me a good push to finally take my exams to get my driver’s license. I have my driver’s license and I’m enjoying the car. I’m enjoying the ride. I’m always on tour now, so I’m missing my driving but I’m happy to be back,” she said.

In Friday’s quarterfinal round, Rybakina will play No. 25 Leylah Fernandez of Canada, who gutted out a 6-7 (2), 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory over 79th-ranked Turkish qualifier Zeynep Sonmez. Fernandez is through to her 23rd career WTA Tour quarterfinal – and she’s the first Canadian to reach the last eight in Stuttgart.

In the longest match of the week – three hours and seven minutes – Sonmez gutted out the 84-minute first set in a tie-break 7-2. Then, Fernandez turned things around by dominating the second set 6-1. In the decider, Sonmez raced to a 5-1 lead, then allowed Fernandez back into the match. The Canadian won four-straight games, including two breaks of serve to level the set at 5-all. However, Sonmez broke Fernandez for the sixth time to go ahead 6-5. Serving for the match, she fell behind 0-30 and was broken for the eighth time to force a decisive tie-break. 

In the tie-break, Sonmez gained a mini-break but it was quickly erased as Fernandez won both points on the Turkish star’s serve. Sonmez got the break back and, soon, the tie-break was on serve. It was 3-all as players changed ends and anyone’s guess how it would turn out.

Sonmez gained a mini-break to go up 5-3 after Fernandez served a double fault – her seventh of the match. Soon, Fernandez got the break back to level matters at 5-all after Sonmez sprayed a forehand wide. Next, Fernandez gained match point after Sonmez netted a backhand return to end a dramatic 15-shot rally. Then, she put away the victory to advance. 

In total, there were 236 points contested and Fernandez outpointed Sonmez 122-114. Fernandez finished with 34 winners to 56 unforced errors, compared to 41 winners and 71 unforced errors by Sonmez. Fernandez converted nine of 14 break points and saved 18 of 24 she faced.

“Zeynep played an incredible match. She was attacking from the get-go,” Fernandez said during her on-court interview. “She never stopped fighting. I’m just glad [I didn’t give up]. The crowd helped me, too. Thank you, guys, you did most of the work helping me get back into the match. I’m just happy to be into the next round.”

Around Porsche Arena

• From the outset, World No. 12 Karolina Muchova of Czechia looked like she was headed toward a straight-set loss against World No. 20 Elise Mertens of Belgium in their third career meeting. However, after dropping the opening set 6-1 and falling behind 2-0 in the second set, the seventh-seeded Muchova turned her second-round match around and won 12 of the final 15 games to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 in one hour and 56 minutes.

The seventh-seeded Muchova struck 31 winners – four of them for aces – and converted six of 13 break-points opportunities against Mertens. She took advantage of nine double faults and 14 unforced errors by the Belgian No. 1, who hit 23 winners and broke Muchova’s serve four times in six chances.

“It’s tennis, you never know,” Muchova said during her on-court interview in trying to explain her turnaround against Mertens and comeback victory. “It’s just about a fight, and honestly, I think she started to play really well. She was pushing me and I was kind of looking for myself and trying to find a rhythm. … It was just believing that I could get there and to stick to my game and it happened in the second set. I’m glad that I have a chance to play another round here.”

Muchova, who is through to her fourth quarterfinal of the season following Brisbane, Doha and Miami, will face World No. 3 and second seed Coco Gauff on Friday.

• Linz champion Mirra Andreeva of Russia advanced to her second straight WTA 500 quarterfinal with her 7-6 (3), 6-3 victory over 95th-ranked qualifier Alycia Parks of the United States in one hour and 36 minutes. It was her 12th victory in 13 career meetings with qualifiers/lucky losers and, since going out in the round of 16 at the Miami Open last month, the World No. 9 Andreeva has strung together a six-match winning streak.

Although Andreeva hit just 10 winners – four of them aces – she made just six unforced errors and outpointed Parks 80-62. She converted five of nine break points and overcame 21 winners from Parks by capitalizing on her opponent’s seven double faults and 41 unforced errors. The loss by Parks dropped her career win-loss record against Top-10 opponents to 2-6.

“The match was very tough and [Alycia’s] a very dangerous player,” Andreeva said during her on-court interview. “She has a great serve; she has very fast groundstrokes. I’m just super excited that I managed to, somehow, win the first set. After, I just felt that even if something doesn’t go well as I want it to be, I know she’s not going to get away from me and I’m going to win the second set and finish it in straight sets.”

On Friday, Andreeva will face World No. 4 and third seed Iga Swiatek, with whom she has won two of three career meetings, both in 2025 on hard courts at Indian Wells and Dubai.

• World No. 14 Linda Noskova of Czechia advanced to her second quarterfinal of the season with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over World No. 13 and eighth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia in 58 minutes. Noskova converted five of eight break-point opportunities and won 77 percent (24 of 31) of her first-serve points. She saved all six break points she faced en route to earning her 13th victory of the season. On Friday, Noskova will face World No. 7 and fourth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.

• In doubles, No. 2 seeds Ellen Perez of Australia and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands defeated unseeded Alexandra Panova of Russia and Yang Zhaoxuan of China, 7-6 (5), 6-4, to earn a berth in Saturday’s semifinals against No. 4 seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Liudmila Samsonova of Russia.

Also, No. 1 seeds Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Zhang Shuai of China advanced to the semifinal round with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Laura Siegemund of Germany and Vera Zvonareva of Russia. On Saturday, they will face unseeded Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Quinn Gleason of the United States, who held off Alycia Parks and Alana Smith of the United States, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 10-6.

Thursday’s Stuttgart results

Friday’s Stuttgart order of play

By the numbers

Elena Rybakina‘s 22 victories this season is third-best on the WTA Tour behind Jessica Pegula (24) and Aryna Sabalenka (23).

“Quotable …”

“Obviously, she’s a great player, but I’ll just approach this match as every other match that I had before. She’s had a good history on clay, so I’m just very curious to see how it’s going to go. This is clay indoors, so it’s still a little bit different, but yeah, I’m kind of excited to see how this match will go on clay court for the first time.”

– World No. 9 and sixth seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia, during her post-match news conference describing her upcoming quarterfinal matchup against four-time Roland-Garros champion Iga Swiatek. It will be their first meeting on clay after having played three times on hard courts. 

 

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