Coco Gauff has reached yet another French Open quarter-final after edging past Ekaterina Alexandrova in Paris.
Chris Evert thinks Gauff played her best match of the French Open this year as she defeated Alexandrova 6-0, 7-5.
Second seed Gauff needed just one hour and 22 minutes to defeat 20th seed Alexandrova and reach a fifth consecutive French Open quarter-final.
Gauff is confident in her physical levels at this stage of her career, with the American currently chasing her first title at Roland Garros.
She reached the final in 2022 but lost to Iga Swiatek, before winning the US Open final against Aryna Sabalenka the following year.
What Coco Gauff thinks of ATP Tour player Joao Fonseca
Gauff is currently ranked behind only Sabalenka on the WTA Tour, with her world number two spot representing a career high.
Reaching his career-high rank on the ATP Tour earlier this season was Joao Fonseca, who Gauff was tasked with discussing in her latest press conference.
READ MORE: Coco Gauff and Tommy Paul help break 40-year American record at the French Open
Explaining what she had to do differently to beat the top players in the early stages of her career, she said: “A lot of it is just experience.
“A lot of the time you may feel like a better player than them but what makes the difference is that they know what to do in those tough moments. With him, he is so talented and doing so great. It all will come with experience and time.
“Obviously with guys it’s a bit different physicality wise and the fact at 18 he is making the third round of slams and doing the things that he has done, especially being on the male side of things, where I think it’s a bit bigger of a physicality gap between 18 and 23 than the women’s.
“So I am very excited to see where he will be in a few years and just knowing that you want the results right now, you don’t realise how much you can improve in those years, so I am sure that other people around him make him aware of that.”
What has 18-year-old Joao Fonseca achieved on the ATP Tour so far?
Fonseca currently occupies 65th place in the ATP rankings, with the 18-year-old having climbed as high as 59th in March.
At 18, the Brazilian already has one tour-level title to his name, having emerged victorious in Buenos Aires earlier this season.
| Rank | Titles | Prize money | |
| 2025 | 65 | 1 | $471,693 |
| Career | 59 (High) | 1 | $1,290,400 |
That maiden title arrived immediately after his Australian Open heroics, where the teenager knocked out ninth seed Andrey Rublev.
Fonseca fell to Lorenzo Sonego in the second round in Melbourne, and just went one step further at the French Open.
After another huge upset against 30th seed Hubert Hurkacz, he defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert before losing to fifth seed Jack Draper.
Gauff meanwhile knows what it takes to succeed at such a young age, having produced a phenomenal run at the 2023 US Open aged just 19.
Listening to her would be a wise move from Fonseca, who has already followed in the footsteps of the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
All three players are winners of the Next Gen ATP Finals, with Sinner and Alcaraz quickly going on to achieve stunning success.
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