Coco Gauff's hopes of winning a maiden Madrid Open title were dashed after she was beaten by 13th seed Linda Noskova on Monday.

Gauff, who lost in the 2025 Madrid Open final to Aryna Sabalenka, fell short in the Spanish capital once again as Noskova earned a 6-4 1-6 7-5 (7-5) victory. 

A tightly contested opening set went in Noskova's favour as she got the better of Gauff's serve in the fifth game before comfortably claiming the early advantage. 

However, the American responded brilliantly in the second, needing just 26 minutes to take the match the distance after reeling off the final five games with relative ease. 

And it appeared the momentum was with Gauff in the decider as she opened with a break of serve, only for Noskova to mount a brilliant comeback from 4-1 down. 

Noskova led 5-4 as both players held serve heading into the tie-break, though it was Gauff who was in the ascendancy as she raced into a 3-0 lead. 

But as she did in the third set, Noskova battled back and booked her place in the last eight when a forehand from the back of the court was returned wide by Gauff.

Coming out on

A big win for Linda Noskova against Gauff to move into her first Madrid quarterfinal!#MMOPEN pic.twitter.com/29tskA3xqu

— wta (@WTA) April 27, 2026

Mirra Andreeva was also involved in a three-set thriller of her own in the round of 16, though the ninth seed was on the right side of the result against Anna Bondar. 

After also losing the opening set, Andreeva came back to win 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 7-5 (7-5) to seal a date with Leylah Fernandez for a place in the semi-finals. 

Data Debrief: Noskova breaks the mould as Andreeva celebrates early birthday present

With her victory over Gauff, which is the 12th top-10 win of her career, Noskova has reached her fourth WTA-1000 quarter-final but her first on clay, becoming the first Czech to reach this stage on the surface since Karolina Pliskova in Rome 2021. 

She will now also make back-to-back last-eight appearances at WTA level events for the first time since June 2025 (Nottingham and Bad Homburg), though this is the only time she has managed to do so on clay. 

And two days before her birthday, Andreeva became the player with the outright most WTA-1000 quarter-finals reached before turning 19 (nine) since the format's introduction in 2009.

She is also the youngest player to reach three consecutive quarter-finals at a single Tier I/WTA-1000 event since Martina Hingis in Miami between 1997 and 1999.