Marks birthday with win to advance to her second straight quarterfinal at the

*(2023 Getty Images – Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)/Olympics.com*

American tennis star Coco Gauff was dominant Wednesday (13 March), racing to a 6-0, 6-2 win in just over an hour over Belgium’s Elise Mertens in the round of 16 at Indian Wells, Scott Bregman reports for Olympics.com.

The win sends Gauff to her second-straight quarterfinal at the event – and marks her first win as a non-teenager, with the match falling on her 20th birthday.

The reigning US Open champion wasted no time, breaking Mertens early for a 2-0 lead and never looking back in the opening set. In less than 25 minutes, she had the set in hand over the No. 24 seed.

At first, the second set seemed more of the same as Gauff again went up 2-0. But Mertens broke back to get on the scoreboard at 2-1. She then consolidated the break to bring the set even at two-all.

But from there, it was all Gauff. The newly minted 20-year-old won three straight games to bring it to 5-2, with Mertens serving to stay in the match.

The Belgian couldn’t deliver, throwing in three errors in a row to end her tournament.

Gauff will next face off with the winner of the upcoming Yuan Yue versus Daria Kasatkina match in Thursday’s (14 March) quarterfinals.

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