THE final eight has been decided at the the WTA Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, with the draw evenly split for seeded and unseeded competitors following a couple of intriguing results, which saw two teenagers win their way through to the quarter finals.

The big upset of the day saw youngster Coco Gauff down in-form seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka, striking while the iron was hot to clinch the 7-5 6-3 victory over the Belarusian who took home the Madrid trophy just last week.

“It’s one of those matches that for me as a fan, if I were to be able to watch myself play, that would be a match that I would want to watch,” Gauff said. “Because you know we’re going to bring everything we have from the beginning to the end. She brings the intensity on the court from the first point. I have to make sure that I manage that and bring even more intensity. I think you feel it the whole match.”

The 17-year-old American continues to impress on the big stage and this matchup was no different, winning 72 per cent of her first serve points off a 61 per cent clip, also saving four of five break points and converting four of nine chances herself.

“Now I really am trying to enjoy the pressure, enjoy the moment,” she said. “Today I definitely said to myself I’m really having fun out there, even though it was 6-5, 5-all in the first set, which is stressful. I think I have to make sure I enjoy those moments in the matches, because later on in life I’m probably going to wish I could come back to this moment and experience it again. I’m going to enjoy these moments while they’re happening.”

15th seed and 19-year-old Iga Swiatek joins Gauff in the quarters, following a tough encounter with Czech talent Barbora Krejcikova. Whilst it was not pretty, Swiatek was proud of how she battled through her own inconsistency and fluctuating game to come out on top with the 3-6 7-6 7-5 victory in two hours and 50 minutes.

“I just had a tough day mentally,” Swiatek said post-match. “It was hard for me to be positive. I’m really happy I could win that, I could turn the score around. Usually in this situation I was the kind of person that was kind of giving up mentally. Today, even though I wasn’t feeling completely perfect on court, I had some issues as well, I could manage with everything and just win points.”

“I had fun when I played dropshots because today I felt them really good. I asked myself a question, what would annoy me in that situation, so I tried to do that. So, yeah, sometimes it didn’t look pretty, but I’m happy that I could do that. One year ago I wouldn’t even come up with a solution like that. That’s a progress.”

The remaining three seeded victors of the day all skated through with straight sets wins, as top seed Ash Barty continues to bounce back well from her final loss to Sabalenka last week with a 6-3 6-3 victory over Russian Veronika Kudermetova, while both Elina Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova proved too strong for their respective opposition in returnee Garbine Muguruza and Vera Zvonareva. 12th seed Muguruza has looked potent this week but was inefficient on serve, winning just 34.7 per cent of her total service points as fifth seed Svitolina reigned supreme.

In other games, Jelena Ostapenko ousted former champion Angelique Kerber in a two hour and 11-minute clash, 4-6 6-3 6-4, while Petra Martic won in three against Nadia Podoroska and Jessica Pegula claimed the quickest win of the day, with a one hour and 11-minute victory over Ekaterina Alexandrova.

INTERNAZIONALI BNL D’ITALIA ROUND OF 16 RESULTS: 

[1] Ash Barty (AUS) defeated Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) 6-3 6-3
[5] Elina Svitolina (UKR) defeated [12] Garbine Muguruza (ESP) 6-4 6-2
Coco Gauff (USA) defeated [7] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) 7-5 6-3
[9] Karolina Pliskova (CZE) defeated Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 7-5 6-3
[15] Iga Swiatek (POL) defeated Barbora Krejcikova (CZE) 3-6 7-6 7-5
Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) defeated Angelique Kerber (GER) 4-6 6-3 6-4
Petra Martic (SLO) defeated Nadia Podoroska (ARG) 3-6 6-1 6-2
Jessica Pegula (USA) defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) 6-2 6-4

Picture credit: Paolo Bruno / Getty Images