Coco Gauff fends off Jil Teichmann to advance at Gippsland Trophy

Coco Gauff was rusty on serve and struggled to supply her finest tennis however the American prodigy prevailed 6-3 6-7(6) 7-6(5) over Swiss Jil Teichmann to succeed in the second spherical of the Gippsland Trophy in Melbourne on Monday.
Serving for a 5-2 lead within the second set, 16-year-old Gauff was damaged with a double-fault and world quantity 57 Teichmann scrapped exhausting to stage the match on the Margaret Court Arena at Melbourne Park.
Gauff ramped up the stress within the deciding tiebreak, nonetheless, to ebook a conflict with Briton Katie Boulter within the WTA 500 occasion, considered one of a slew of warmups being performed at Melbourne Park within the leadup to subsequent week’s Australian Open.
“It was definitely a challenging match I feel like for both of us,” stated Gauff.
“This (second) tiebreak I was just focused on making her play.”
World quantity 48 Gauff, touted as a possible successor to American nice Serena Williams, claimed the largest win of her younger profession at her Australian Open debut final yr, knocking out defending champion Naomi Osaka earlier than falling to eventual winner Sofia Kenin within the fourth spherical.
It was Gauff’s second look within the second week of a Grand Slam earlier than her sixteenth birthday, having made the fourth spherical at her Wimbledon debut in 2019.
Third seed Elina Svitolina eased into the final 16 on Monday with a 6-1 6-4 win over Andrea Petkovic, whereas high seed Simona Halep performs Anastasia Potapova within the night session.