Bencic battles blisters, stuns Gauff at Indian Wells

Former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic stunned third-seeded American Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

The Swiss wild card, who gave birth to daughter Bella in April of last year, won 69% of her first-serve points and broke the former US Open champion three times in a match that lasted two hours and 20 minutes.

In the tightly contested third set, it was Bencic who struck first as she came back from 0-40 down to break Gauff for a 5-4 lead and closed out the victory on her first match point when the top-ranked American ripped a forehand long.

“Obviously, this is why you are practicing and working hard all your life, so it’s super nice to play in this kind of atmosphere,” Bencic said in her on-court interview. “The way you cheered before the match … I had chills and goosebumps and I kind of just put the serve into the court because I was so nervous.”

Gauff started aggressively and committed five double faults in the first set, including three in one game, but was only broken once en route to wrapping up the set in 51 minutes when Bencic sent a forehand wide.

But Bencic was firing on all cylinders in the second set and, despite twice requiring medical attention for foot and hand issues, built a 4-1 lead before securing it when Gauff returned a serve into the net.

Bencic took another medical timeout before the deciding set to have a hand blister tended to.

She awaits the winner of Thursday’s clash between Australian Open champion Madison Keys, the No. 5 seed, and Croatian 19th seed Donna Vekic.

No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka will face Britain’s Sonay Kartal in pursuit of a quarterfinal with either Jasmine Paolini or Liudmila Samsonova.

Reuters contributed to this report.