TENNIS player Coco Gauff came back from four games down in the final set to beat Clara Burel of France with a score of 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) at the Indian Wells Masters ATP-WTA.
The defending US Open champion had to fight for more than two hours and a quarter to advance to the third round after receiving a bye in the first round.
The world number three appeared in front of his hometown crowd for the first time since winning his first Grand Slam title six months ago.
Gauff broke the WTA record by reaching 50 wins as a teenager at the Masters 1000 level, a category created in 2009.
Gauff trailed 4-0 in the third set against her 47th-ranked French opponent, but managed to fight back and force the match into a tiebreaker.
He advanced to the next round on his third match point when Burel hit a wide shot.
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“I’m happy with the mental struggle,” Gauff said. “It wasn’t my best tennis… but it’s how you perform on your worst day, not your best, that counts.”
Gauff said that after losing the first set, she had to change strategy.
“I tried to play more aggressively,” he said. “He gave me a lot of short balls and I wanted to punish him for that.
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“In the third set, I made mistakes, but finally I found my game.”
Emma Raducanu had no advantage when Dayana Yastremska retired four games into their match with an undisclosed injury, giving Great Britain a 4-0 win and a place in the third round.
Raducanu, whose career has been uncertain since winning the 2021 US Open, was only on court for 21 minutes.
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Now she awaits the opponent in the match between the second seed, Australian Open doubles champion Aryna Sabalenka, and American Peyton Stears.
Raducanu will play in the third round here for the third time in a row.
In the ATP draw, Cameron Norrie of England advanced to the third round by beating Lorenzo Sonego of Italy with a score of 6-4, 6-4.
The 14th seed, Ugo Humbert, last week’s Dubai champion, beat American Patrick Kypson by the same score. (AFP/Z-3)
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