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US Open champion Coco Gauff says a row with the umpire “fuelled” her as she beat in-form Karolina Pliskova to reach the Dubai quarter-finals.
Gauff was unhappy her serve was called out after Pliskova hit a missed return and had a long discussion with Pierre Bacchi when told to replay the point.
The 19-year-old American moved on from the second-set exchange and continued her fightback to win 2-6 6-4 6-3.
“It kind of went upward for me from there,” said Gauff.
“I was telling me to stay calm in the next point and not let that be a turning point. Maybe I dragged it out longer than I needed to, but I did what I thought was best in the moment.
“I think it fuelled me.”
Elsewhere in Wednesday’s third-round matches, world number one Iga Swiatek continued her fine form in the Middle East as she beat Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
Poland’s Swiatek won the Doha title last week and continued her quest for back-to-back titles with a 6-1 6-4 win over 15th seed Svitolina.
Swiatek, who has won 24 of her past 25 completed singles matches, will face Australian Open runner-up Zheng Qinwen in the quarters.
Gauff’s reward for beating former world number one Pliskova, who had won her 11 previous completed matches, is a quarter-final against Russian Anna Kalinskaya.
Kalinskaya, ranked 40th in the world, put together a surprise run to the Melbourne Park quarter-finals last month and continued her good form by beating Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 6-4 7-5.
In the other half of the draw, former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina is the highest seed left after holding off Poland’s Magdalena Frech in a 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 6-4 win.
Kazakh fourth seed Rybakina will play Jasmine Paolini after the Italian won 6-4 6-2 against Greek eighth seed Maria Sakkari.
Reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, who beat Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova, will face Sorana Cirstea in the remaining quarter-final.
Romanian Cirstea, 33, reached the last eight in Dubai for the first time since 2011 after knocking out Croatia’s Donna Vekic.
