(Photo credit: Frank Bowen IV/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Second-seeded American Coco Gauff continued her strong performance in the Cincinnati Open with a 6-2, 6-4 fourth-round victory over Lucia Bronzetti of Italy Thursday in Mason, Ohio.

In her first match in four days thanks to a third-round walkover, Gauff was at her best in the biggest moments of the match. She converted 5 of 7 break-point opportunities and won 57.9 percent of her second-serve points (11 of 19).

Bronzetti, an unseeded competitor who pulled off a pair of upsets over top-25 seeds in Australia's Daria Katsakina and Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko to reach the Round of 16, won just 22.2 percent (6 of 27) of her second-serve points against Gauff.

'For the most part, I played aggressive. Maybe got a bit passive in some of those games. But it's tough. The balls are super light and they fly,' Gauff said. 'She wasn't giving me much pace. I was trying to play with control but also aggressive. I think I did well. I missed a couple balls. But I learned from it and was able to close it out.'

With her victory, Gauff, who won the 2023 Cincinnati Open, is through to her first quarterfinal since she won her second career grand slam at the French Open in June.

Gauff will face another Italian, No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini for a spot in the semifinals after Paolini rolled to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in 65 minutes on Thursday.

Paolini never faced a break point in her runaway victory, avenging her loss to Krejcikova in the 2024 Wimbledon final.

In a matchup of unseeded competitors after a pair of third-round upsets, France's Varvara Gracheva rallied to a 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over Ella Seidel of Germany to advance to the Round of 16.

After her serve was broken twice in the opening set, Gracheva faced just one break point and lost two total games (one service, one returning) over the final two sets.

This marks Gracheva's first appearance in the Round of 16 of a WTA 1000 event since the 2023 Miami Open. She'll face another unseeded competitor, Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, after the latter upset No. 31 seed Magda Linette of Poland 6-4, 6-3 in the final match of the night.

Kudermetova, who won the final four games of the match to clinch her upset of Linette, is also through to the Round of 16 in a WTA 1000 event for the first time since 2023.

'I think it's just my mindset,' Kudermetova said of her quarterfinal run. 'Right now, I'm trying to enjoy the tennis. ... These past few weeks, I'm really proud of myself.'

-Field Level Media