Defending champion Coco Gauff battled past Leylah Fernandez 6-4 4-6 7-5 in 2 hours and 45 minutes in the third round at the China Open in Beijing.
Gauff will face Belinda Bencic, who came back from a set and 3-1 down to beat Priscilla Hon4-6 6-4 6-3.
Gauff earned her first break in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Fernandez broke back in the eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Gauff broke for the second time in the ninth game to take a 5-4 lead and sealed the opening set on her first set point after saving a break point in the 10th game.
Gauff built a 6-4 1-0 lead with an early break in the first game of the second set. Fernandez broke straight in the second game with a backhand winner to draw level to 1-1 and saved three break points to hold for 3-2 in the fifth game. Fernandez broke serve in the 10th game to seal the second set 6-4 when Gauff netted a backhand.
The third set started with five consecutive breaks. Gauff went up a break twice in the first and third games but Fernandez pulled back on serve both times. Gauff earned her third break in the fifth game and was the first to hold serve in the sixth game with an angled forehand pass to take a 4-2 lead. The US player converted her third break point in the seventh game to take a 5-2 lead. Fernandez saved a match point in the eighth game and broke serve for 3-5, as Gauff was serving for the match.
Fernandez pulled back on serve to draw level to 5-5. Gauff converted her fourth break point in the 11th game, a Fernandez netted a forehand. Gauff sealed the win on the third match point with a serve and volley.
Coco Gauff: “She definitely played great tennis. I thought she was being aggressive, striking the ball pretty well. She wasn’t really giving me much free points either. I wish I was more aggressive in some moments. I could tell she stepped up the aggressiveness in the second. I think in that 3-2 game on those break points, I should have put the ball deeper and maybe tried to get her to open up the court. The conditions were so slow, which I feel like she does well with that because she likes to take the ball so early. So I felt like my heaviness wasn’t doing a lot with her as the balls got older. I found when I had new balls, I would win, like, two or three games in a row. I think the toughest part was just dealing with the conditions and trying to feel like I could hit through her, but I couldn’t do that as well today as I felt like I did earlier this year.”
