With the start of the French Open just over two weeks away, the defending champion is doing what she does best. Coco Gauff is scrapping for her wins.

The 22-year-old American logged her third straight comeback victory Tuesday in the Italian Open quarterfinals, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, against world No. 7 Mirra Andreeva. She led 5-1 in the final set, but needed five match points to improve to 5-0 against the young Russian.

“Honestly, it was tough. … I know when I play her, she can play great tennis at any moment. But I was also thinking, I saved a match point in the last round, so I could easily not be here today,” Gauff said in her news conference.

“I was just trying to appreciate just being here, even if those match points weren’t going my way. I think it showed in my reaction every time I lost them.”

With the win, Gauff advanced to the semifinals of the Italian Open for the fourth time in her career and for the third consecutive year. It was a triumph over a player with whom Gauff shares much in common these days, beyond their superb defensive skills and prodigious talent that emerged at a young age.

Both Gauff and Andreeva are strong contenders for the Roland Garros title next month, part of a group that includes fellow Italian Open quarterfinalists Elena Rybakina and Iga Świątek, as well as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.

Both are also in the process of trying to figure out key elements of their games while standing under a harsh spotlight, technically and mentally. Gauff and Andreeva have both been winning plenty of matches lately, but they have both needed to get out of their own way — especially when ahead on the scoreboard.

For Andreeva, her mental and emotional state during matches has wavered far more than her tennis.

The 19-year-old has had a successful clay-court swing, picking up a title on indoor clay at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open before reaching the final of the Madrid Open in both singles and doubles.

But her strong run has been peppered with public bouts of self-doubt, and Andreeva has spoken about how disruptive her untamed emotions can be in matches.

The most memorable recent moment came in a third-round match in Madrid against Hungary’s Anna Bondár, in which Andreeva had let go of a 5-1 lead in the third set. She then turned to her coaching team in the stands and said, “I’m not a champion, I’m not a champion. I will lose. I will lose. I choke.”

It appeared that Andreeva, who has gone through bouts of self-flagellation and dismay in moments big and small of late, culminating in cursing at the crowd after a loss at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, was done. Instead, she won the match.

Gauff, meanwhile, spoke of additional off-court challenges that have had her “on edge” and listening to gospel music before matches to calm down. She has also admonished herself the past week, even in matches she ultimately won.

She pulled off a pair of comebacks to reach the quarterfinals in Rome, fighting from match point down in the fourth round against rising American Iva Jović, the 16th seed, and from a double-break down against Solana Sierra in the third round. But in both matches, Gauff let a platform for victory strip her of her ruthlessness.

She went 3-0 down to Sierra in the third set after winning the second 6-0, while she led by a break in both of the first two sets against Jović, before finding herself down a set and 5-3. A combination of nerves and an issue with a finger on Jović’s right hand gave Gauff the assist she needed to win the second set. Then she took over the third.

Gauff said her motivation was flagging against Sierra, a symptom of what she called “some personal things off court” that she’s been going.

“For most of my career, I’ve been having to only focus on my game. So it’s weird when your mind is in a different place,” she said after winning that match.

What Gauff and Andreeva also share is a sense of distrust on their forehands. Gauff, who has been on an odyssey to fix her fickle serve, appears to have quelled the double faults that tended to define her losses in 2025. She is not there yet on the most important groundstroke for most players, with her footwork and spacing — how close she gets to the ball before hitting it — getting her off balance and needing her to compensate with her phenomenal backhand and foot speed. Andreeva, too, can swing through the shot, but often decelerates and plays it safer than she might need to do, slicing when she could drive.

Andreeva looked to be the more confident competitor at the start Tuesday. She dictated more often after breaking early for a 2-1 lead and captured her first set against Gauff since they played at the 2023 French Open.

Andreeva and Gauff traded characters in the second set. Gauff was more assertive at the net and played perhaps the cleanest, most assured set of her clay-court swing this year as Andreeva faded into the background. She often finds clarity on her forehand when she pairs it with intent to move forward, and this was no exception.

There were no emotional outbursts this time from Andreeva, only an absence of emotion that lasted until Gauff led 5-1 in the third set. Then, as against Sierra, Gauff became passive and Andreeva, free of pressure and with her coaching team shouting, “You can win this match!” from the stands, came back online. She forced errors from Gauff’s forehand, but ultimately wasn’t aggressive enough to fully shake her opponent.

Coco Gauff is trying to make her forehand a more reliable shot. (Robert Prange / Getty Images)

Gauff may be having difficulties with her forehand and focus, but the three years in age and four years on tour that separate Gauff and Andreeva make a difference. Self-trust is not something that Gauff lacks.

“I was trying to find the balance of being aggressive and not missing, and on some of those match points I made some unforced errors. But also just forgetting them. I mean, it’s a missed opportunity, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create another one. I was trying to get myself as many opportunities and hopefully [with] the math, eventually one will land my way.” Gauff said in an interview on Tennis Channel.

Late in the third set, Gauff fist pumped after hard fought points even if she lost them. After Andreeva broke her to win her third straight game and make it 5-4, Gauff was confident her return game could carry her home.

“It’s disappointing when you’re 5-1 and all of a sudden it’s 5-4, but I also reminded myself I have a really good return percentage, I think I’m one of the best on tour percentage-wise with that,” Gauff said.

“So I don’t know, just like, the numbers are on my side. I have to hope that they stick today.”

They did, after a 13-minute final game in which Andreeva saved two match points.

Next up, Gauff faces Sorana Cîrstea, the Romanian who handed world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka her earliest loss at a tournament in more than a year Saturday in Rome. At 36, Cîrstea is playing her final year on tour, meaning Gauff has plenty in common with her upcoming opponent, too. For different reasons, they share a similar mindset.

“It’s just trying to not leave the court with regrets,” Gauff said.

When all is said and done, if Arsenal win the Premier League, Mikel Arteta’s iPad notes for May 2026 could be deserving of a memoir.

This is the first time Arsenal have reached mid-May in the driver’s seat of a title race in 22 years. Impressively, they have done so after another lacklustre April under manager Arteta, who has needed to rely on his instincts to establish control of the battle to be champions as its final chapter approaches.

Two losses in last month’s three league matches gave the impression of momentum slipping, and even if performances improved towards the end of April, something different was needed to shift the energy towards the club.

Their first match of May, at home to Fulham, is where the shift came and kick-started a nine-day period in which they reached the Champions League final and now look like favourites to take the Premier League title.

Playing Myles Lewis-Skelly in midfield and Riccardo Calafiori at left-back unlocked a freedom and balance that saw Arteta name an unchanged team across all competitions for just the second and third times all season against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semi-final second leg and then West Ham on Sunday.

Asked about the decision post-Atletico, the Spaniard said light-heartedly: “If you see my iPad, the amount of line-ups I’ve done and changed and turned it again, and ‘What about this?’, and the possible subs and ‘If they do that, we do this’. In the end, it was my gut feeling. I had such a good feeling from what I saw a few days ago against Fulham.”

His team may have played with more vim and vigour in that 3-0 win but it would not have solely been what was happening on the pitch that fuelled Arteta’s feelings that day.

Arsenal players during the win over Fulham (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

For the first time in a while, the Emirates Stadium crowd seemed to be fully enjoying the football they were seeing rather than being prisoners to the tension that comes from expectation.

So when half-time came with their team three goals up, the roar from the stands was so visceral that the energy shift could have been sensed by somebody in a coma.

The noise was so loud that it made the referee’s whistle hard to hear, and felt comparable to the explosion of noise from the away end at Brighton on March 4, when news of Manchester City’s 2-2 home draw with Nottingham Forest that same night filtered through.

Biggest cheer from the away end tonight came when they found out it was full time at Manchester City

That was a minute or so after full time at the AMEX, and they’re still in full voice now pic.twitter.com/j7bSZ11u74

— Art de Roché (@ArtdeRoche) March 4, 2026

The Arsenal fans’ reaction at the Amex Stadium is how Arteta, his players and those in the press box found out the City result.

Against Fulham, the feedback from the home crowd was all the Arsenal manager needed to know his gut feeling was the right one.

Lewis-Skelly and Calafiori continued to provide balance against Atletico three days later, and were also key components to Arsenal’s strong start against West Ham, alongside Leandro Trossard.

Everything positive about Arsenal’s play early on at the London Stadium came through this trio. Lewis-Skelly’s ability to receive the ball on the turn and play forward, Calafiori’s buccaneering forward runs and Trossard’s comfort with dropping deep to supply the left-back brought a fluidity to the left flank that had only been consistently seen in the autumn — when Calafiori and Trossard started eight consecutive matches together.

But with Ben White down injured after 26 minutes and forced off, Arsenal’s season depended on Arteta and his gut feelings again.

In timely fashion, when asked about decision-making in title run-ins ahead of the West Ham match, he told reporters: “There is something that is related to your intuition. What the game is going to require, the state of the players, the way you can imagine the game and where the players can have the most impact.

“You can get it right or wrong, you never know. But if you do what you feel, at least you have the certainty that you’ve done the preparation, you’ve done the thinking, and when it comes time to deliver, that’s something else.”

Ben White went off injured against West Ham (Kevin Hodgson/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Arteta did not have his iPad to hand at the London Stadium, but when the broadcast cameras zoomed in on his face, you could see the weight of the decision as he was deliberating with his assistants. He later explained that he felt bringing on Cristhian Mosquera for White “was going to lock something”, so that is why he moved Declan Rice from midfield to right-back, but that seemed to be Arteta second-guessing what had got Arsenal to such a promising position: consistency.

Rice impressed at right-back in the home game against Brighton in December, but it was clear within minutes on Sunday that Arteta got this call wrong. The domino effect of playing Rice out of position and bringing on Martin Zubimendi left Arsenal’s right side vulnerable and impacted their attacking balance. Even if Calafiori was not injured, Mosquera’s introduction and Rice’s return to midfield were necessary to start the second half.

The further tweak, the one that would win the game for Arsenal, came 22 minutes later, and once again it was down to a feeling.

“Sometimes you have to make another change,” Arteta added. “The one on Zubi was tough, but I really felt that we had to put two attacking midfielders (Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz) in that moment to generate issues, and thank God it worked out.”

It took time for Arteta to get to the right formula, but he deserves credit for recognising his errors as quickly as he did and rectifying them.

In his first title race against Manchester City, there was a reluctance from the Arsenal boss to make changes at key moments that sapped momentum away from his side. He had shown, two months ago, that he is capable of making tough decisions to benefit the team by replacing a sub-par Bukayo Saka with Noni Madueke, who won a crucial penalty away to Bayer Leverkusen in March’s first leg of a Champions League last-16 tie.

Maybe getting that call right made him more confident to make these decisions in the heat of a run-in, but it also helps when those coming off the bench are of the quality of Odegaard and Havertz.

Much has been made of Odegaard’s assist against West Ham in isolation, but in some respects, it was a moment that was indicative of his season. On at 67 minutes, and with the match reaching 102, the Norwegian played 35 per cent of the game. In the Premier League this season, he has played just 39 per cent of the minutes available but has been a key creator in his time on the pitch. That assist was his sixth in the league this season, which is the joint-highest tally at Arsenal alongside Trossard.

At Arsenal, on a per 90-minutes basis, he ranks second for chances created, including assists (2.67), chances created from open play (2.39), expected assists (0.25) and third for passes into the final third (7.8). This assist also joins his ones for Gabriel away to Newcastle United and Rice at Bournemouth as match-winners.

With two league matches and a Champions League final left in their season, the job is not finished, but Arteta acting on feeling more than he has ever done since being appointed in December 2019 brought Arsenal’s season back to life when all seemed lost.

It started by playing Odegaard and Eberechi Eze together in defeat against City at the Etihad Stadium last month, but leaning into that intuition and letting loose during the past 10 days could be a defining moment for him as Arsenal manager.

Thankfully for him, his players and Arsenal fans, his gut has set him right more often than not this month, and he has recognised when a wrong turn was taken so he could steer his team back on course and a step closer to history.