Coco Gauff in ugly scenes as Iga Swiatek continues remarkable streak of tennis perfection

Coco Gauff has credited her ugly run-in with a chair umpire for spurring her on to victory against Karolina Pliskova in the round of 16 at the Dubai Championships. Gauff's fiery exchange came before she stormed into the quarter-finals with a 2-6 6-4 6-3 comeback victory over Pliskova, on the same day World No.1 Iga Swiatek made another stunning statement to her tennis rivals.

Gauff was broken three times on her way to losing the first set against a red-hot Pliskova, who went into the Dubai clash riding an 11-match winning streak. The American reigning US Open champion hit back in the second stanza and found herself 4-2 up when a controversial moment on serve sparked the slanging match with chair umpire Pierre Bacchi.

BRUTAL: Alcaraz in worrying scenes after brutal tennis retirement at Rio Open

NOT HAPPY: Lleyton Hewitt question that made Alex de Minaur snap

The flashpoint came at deuce on Gauff's serve, when the umpire incorrectly ruled that the American's first serve was out and Pliskova hit the ball into the net. Gauff successfully challenged but was not awarded the point and instead made to re-take the serve because the umpire ruled his incorrect call had hindered Pliskova.

“You called it out after she hit it," Gauff could be heard arguing with the chair umpire. “Can you not cut me off for two seconds? Call the supervisor... you can't deny me the supervisor. I’m gonna ask her what the rule is." Gauff eventually accepted the ruling and held for a 5-2 lead, before levelling the match at one set apiece a short time later.

"It definitely gave me some adrenaline," Gauff admitted about the umpire clash after the match. "Luckily I was able to overcome that pretty quickly. I'm glad I was able to reset... I think it just fuelled me. I want to watch back the video... It's just one point.

"It happens in tennis. Players make mistakes; everybody makes mistakes. It kind of went upward from there for me. I was trying to tell myself to stay calm the next point. Sometimes I get angry and I go for too much. I was trying to let that not be the turning point for the set. Maybe I dragged it out a little longer than I needed to, but I did what I felt was best in that moment."

The final set went with serve until Gauff earned the decisive break in the eighth game, before clinching victory to book her third quarter-final of 2024. The American will meet Russian qualifier Anna Kalinskaya in the last eight after she upset ninth seed Jelena Ostapenko 6-4 7-5.

Iga Swiatek makes it a perfect 13

Also through to the last eight in Dubai is World No.1 Swiatek, who won her 13th straight match against a top-20 opponent by beating two-time Dubai champion Elina Svitolina 6-1 6-4. Swiatek - knocked out of the Australian Open third round by Czech Linda Nosková in January - has now won 25 of her last 26 matches dating back to a fourth-round loss to Jelena Ostaptenko at the US Open.

Swiatek will take on Australian Open finalist and No.6 seed Zheng Qinwen in the quarter-finals after the Chinese star beat Anastasia Potapova 6-3, 6-2. The Polish ace goes into the clash with a 5-0 record against Zheng, with their last appearance coming in January's United Cup, before Zheng reached the first grand slam final of her career at Melbourne Park. Swiatek admits her own disappointment in Melbourne meant she didn't see any of Zheng's matches.

"She's progressing, but I felt like I still could play good tennis against her," Swiatek said about Zheng. "I don't know about Australia because I've got to say I didn't see any of her matches. When I lost ( in the third round to Noskova), I just completely cut off any tennis in my life. So it's hard for me to say. She's at this moment in her career, I mean everybody is when they're 21, 22, 23, when they're improving a lot."

with agencies

Sign up to our newsletter and score the biggest sport stories of the week.