Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, and Jasmine Paolini all made it to the quarter-finals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Thursday, but Mirra Andreeva and Emma Navarro were upset by Ekaterina Alexandrova and Jelena Ostapenko respectively, while top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka received a walkover due to an injury to Russia’s Anastasia Potapova.
I just have to do what I have to do: Stay aggressive and playing my game. I’m always ready for a battle against great players. Jelena Ostapenko
Pegula, the 3rd seed, downed Poland’s Magdalena Frech, 6-1 6-1, in 59 minutes, while her American compatriot, 4th-seeded Gauff, sailed past Germany’s Ella Seidel, 6-1 6-1 in just 57 minutes, and Paolini, the Italian 5th seed, defeated Germany’s Jule Niemeier, 6-1 7-5, after an hour and 26 minutes.
Making her debut in Stuttgart, Pegula, the World No 3, won her 7th straight clay-court match in a rout of Frech in her opening match, setting up a Last 8 meeting with Alexandrova, after the Russian continued her 2025 surge with a 6-3 6-2 upset win over her countrywoman, 6th seed Mirra Andreeva in just 65 minutes.
The result was Alexandrova’s 4th Top 10 win of the season, and her 18th in total.
In a first-time meeting with 17-year old Andreeva, it was the Dubai and Indian Wells champion who got off to the better start, finding a brace of signature down-the-line winners to break in the opening game, but an untimely double-fault gifted the break back, and Alexandrova took control with her big-serving power game from there on in.
The 30-year-old fired 19 winners, including 8 aces, to Andreeva’s 11, while Andreeva struggled to find her first serve, landing only 48% of them, and leaked 24 unforced errors in total.
“Before the match I was preparing myself for a really difficult match, and some of it was really difficult, despite the score,” said Alexandrova afterwards.
Coco Gauff opened her campaign in Stuttgart with a win over wild-card Ella Seidel
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In a night session match, Gauff, the World No 4, ousted lucky loser Seidel, the last German player standing in the singles draw, to match her career-best Stuttgart result, when she also made last year’s quarter-finals.
The American won 87% of her first-serve points, and erased the 3 break points she faced to reach her first quarter-final since January’s Australian Open, giving the 20-year old a welcome boost to her season.
“I was already on clay right after Miami, basically,” Gauff said after her win. “This year, I came a little bit early just to give myself more time to adjust to the clay and indoor conditions here, too. Overall I think it was a good decision.”
Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, will now meet Paolini, the 5th seed, in a marquee quarter-final on Saturday in their first meeting for 20 months, with the American leading 2-0 over the Italian.
“She’s an incredible mover and she has a really good forehand,” Gauff said. “We haven’t played recently on tour, but we do practice together, like she said. Everybody knows about Jasmine and also the fight that she has in her. She never gives up. I have never seen her do that on the court.”
Jasmine Paolini withstood a late come-back challenge by Jule Niemeier and will meet Coco Gauff in the Last 8 on Saturday
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Paolini, though, had to survive a tough test from talented German wild-card Jule Niemeier to make the meeting, advancing 6-1 7-5 after saving a set point in the second set.
Niemeier’s challenge was encapsulated by a point midway through the set in which, hustling back to retrieve a Paolini lob, she pulled off a superb tweener that had both pace and angle, sending the Italian into a full stretch at the net, but the World No 5 managed to put away a volley winner to hold for 3-3.
Paolini’s clutch play proved decisive down in the home stretch, as she had reeled off 7 straight games against a now error-strewn Niemeier to reach 6-1, 2-0, but then was made to work hard to hold off the home favourite’s attempted comeback.
The German broke back twice, but mis-hit a backhand on her set point, and Paolini found her best groundstroke winners of the day to come through the last 3 games in a row.
Jelena Ostapenko reached the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix quarter-finals for the first time since 2018 with an upset win over No 7 seed Emma Navarro to complete the Last 8 line-up on Thursday night.
The second night session match saw Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, completing an engrossing quarter-final line-up with a 7-5 3-6 6-2 upset win over Navarro, the World No 11, in 2 hours and 18 minutes.
The Latvian made it into her first Stuttgart quarter-final since 2018, making her 2nd Last 8 appearance of the year, but she is 3-1 against Top 20 players this season.
“She’s a great player,” Ostapenko said of Navarro. “It was hard to play against her, because she’s, like, not missing a lot of balls since she’s very consistent. I was fighting until the very last point.”
In a topsy-turvy first set, Ostapenko failed to serve out the set at 5-4, but got a second chance at 6-5, and then used her power game to barge a love hold, and the one-set lead.
Navarro took charge of the second, cranking a backhand crosscourt winner to break for 4-2 and levelling the match from there, going just 1-for-6 on break points, which was enough as she was never broken.
In the decider, though, Ostapenko turned things back in her favour, finding a plethora of powerful groundstrokes when she needed them most, and, from 2-2, she won 16 of the next 20 points to prevail.
The Latvian only had 9 break points in the match, but she converted 6 of them, while Navarro went 4-for-18 on break point chances overall.
The stage now is set for Ostapenko to face World No 2 Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals, notably having beaten the Pole in all 5 of their previous meetings, including in Doha earlier this year.
“I just have to do what I have to do: Stay aggressive and playing my game,” Ostapenko said, looking ahead to Swiatek. “I’m always ready for a battle against great players.”
The quarter-finals will be played on Saturday, as there will be no action in Stuttgart on Good Friday, giving all 8 players a day of rest.
Ekaterina Alexandrova upset her 17-year old compatriot Mirra Andreeva to reach the Last 8
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