Watch this ‘ ELECTRIFYING ‘Serve by Coco Gauff that’s put her a point ahead of Q.Zheng.

The first serious Rome scare arrived for Gauff before she squared off with the formidable Badosa in the last 16, as Romanian lucky loser Jaqueline Cristian achieved a shock bagel in their third-round battle, even if the US Open champion did eventually prevail in three.

On Monday morning, Gauff’s powers of recovery were exhibited during her contest with Spain’s Badosa – entering with a protected ranking and on the back of her public split with Stefanos Tsitsipas – as the American came through 5-7 6-4 6-1 in two hours and 27 minutes.

After the pair had broken each other four times in the opening two sets, Badosa was immediately in the ascendancy in the decider as Gauff lost serve straight away, but the 20-year-old responded emphatically with a six-game winning sequence before warmly embracing her Spanish foe at the net.

Despite racking up an alarming 11 double faults, Gauff’s well-documented work on her serve is paying dividends – she won 81% of points behind her first on Monday en route to a third WTA 1000 quarter-final of the year, although she still has just the one Masters triumph to her name from Cincinnati last year.

Nevertheless, the US Open champion can now proudly boast 10 victories at the Italian Open, joining an exclusive club of American players to also achieve that feat before their 21st birthday; only Chris Evert, Serena Williams and Venus Williams have previously done so for the USA.