“As soon as I saw them come over the barrier, my first thought was like: ‘Should I go tackle one of them?’ But I stopped myself,” Gauff Said

Coco Gauff came from a set down to beat Spain’s Paula Badosa 5-7 6-4 6-1, sealing her place in the Italian Open quarter-finals.

The 20-year-old American slipped a set behind to Badosa in Rome, but recovered to win the second set and wrapped up victory in the third.Elsewhere, No 7 seed Zheng Qinwen advanced to the quarter-finals for a second straight year, ending Naomi Osaka’s run with a 6-2 6-4 win in one hour and 24 minutes.

The victory means China’s Qinwen will face Gauff in the last eight on Tuesday.The USA’s Madison Keys beat Romania’s Sorana Cirstea 6-2 6-1 to set-up a quarter-final clash against Swiatek. Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko also fought hard to defeat Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova – Katie Boulter’s conqueror in Rome – in a dramatic third set tiebreak 4-6 6-4 7-6.

The clash between Keys and Cirstea was one of two matches climate protesters forced to be suspended at the Italian Open on Monday.Two members of environmental protest group Ultima Generazione ran on to the court wearing orange vests and threw confetti, while other activists glued themselves to the stands.

A statement on the Italian Open website read: “With the public very angry against the demonstrators, the police officers and firefighters also arrived.

“One of the demonstrators had moved onto the lawn under the big screen of (Court) Pietrangeli. He was taken away by the police.”

“As soon as I saw them come over the barrier, my first thought was like: ‘Should I go tackle one of them?’ But I stopped myself,” Keys said.

“And then the chair (umpire) started yelling at me to go sit down. Unfortunately, it’s starting to become a little bit of a common thing that’s happening.”