China Open
Gauff struggles to overcome Canadian threat
Coco Gauff needed to work for nearly three hours Sunday to finally prevail despite 15 service breaks as the American kept her title defence alive at the China Open.
Gauff passed her test in Beijing 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 over former US open finalist Leylah Fernandez.
The American top seeded winner improved to 40-13 on the season. “It was very physical, we were going back and forth,” Gauff said.
“In the third set I was playing pretty well, but I needed to serve a little better but I did what I needed to do to win today.”
Gauff served for the win leading 5-2 in the deciding set, but lost serve as Fernandez saved a match point.
The top seed had to fight her way out of a 5-all deadlock, breaking in inte penultimate game and escaping with the win on her third match point
The win came despite 43 unforced errors, with Gauff losing serve seven times.