Coco Gauff’s five-week stay in Australia was yesterday extended with a second-round win at the Adelaide International.
The 16-year-old American beat sixth-seeded Petra Martic 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals of the hard-court tournament at Memorial Drive.
It was Gauff’s fourth consecutive win, after two in qualifying and another in the first round.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Gauff lost to fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina in straight sets at the Australian Open. During her Australian Open debut last year, she lost to eventual champion Sofia Kenin in three sets in the fourth round.
Today, Gauff faces Shelby Rogers in the quarter-finals.
In other matches, second-seeded Belinda Bencic advanced with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Misaki Doi, while Storm Sanders upset seventh seed Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. Jil Teichmann beat eighth-seeded Wang Qiang 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, as Anastasija Sevastova defeated Christina McHale 6-4, 6-1.
The 23-year-old Bencic, who lost in the quarter-finals at Memorial Drive last year, won six consecutive games from early in the first set to take control of the match.
“I really like this court. It’s only my second time here in Adelaide, but I love this tournament, I feel very comfortable here,” Bencic said in an on-court interview.
Top-ranked Ashleigh Barty, who lost in the Australian Open quarter-finals, was beaten in the second round by Danielle Collins 6-3, 6-4.
SINGAPORE OPEN
AFP, SINGAPORE
Radu Albot of Moldova on Tuesday fended off a spirited challenge from Australia’s John-Patrick Smith with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 win for a place in the round-of-16 at the Singapore Open.
Albot took the first set with ease, but Smith fought back and held his serve to win the first game of the second set.
The Moldovan soon found himself three break points down in the second game, but hauled himself back into contention with solid groundstrokes to level the set at 1-1.
It was level at 2-2 before Smith broke away and closed out the second set in the ninth game, winning 6-3.
Albot broke Smith’s serve in the third set and went 2-0 ahead, before widening his lead to 4-1 and sealing victory in 1 hour, 29 minutes, with a big serve followed by a forehand swing volley.
In the day’s other singles match, Japan’s Yasutaka Uchiyama defeated Australia’s Marc Polmans 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, while Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann took out Australia’s James Duckworth, 6-2, 6-4.
Turkey’s Altug Celikbilek progressed to the second round with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Japan’s Shintaro Mochizuki.
OPEN SUD DE FRANCE
AFP, MONTPELLIER, France
Andy Murray was on Tuesday dumped out of the Open Sud de France, an ATP event in Montpellier, France, after a straight-sets defeat in the opening round against Belarus’ Egor Gerasimov.
The former world No. 1 squandered a set point in the opening set before losing 7-6 (10/8), 6-1 to the 83rd-ranked Gerasimov.
Murray, who missed the Australian Open after testing positive for COVID-19, was playing his first ATP Tour event since October last year.
Murray fell a break behind in the seventh game against Gerasimov on Tuesday, but fought back to force a tiebreak.
He missed one opportunity to take the set in the breaker, but his opponent clinched it on his fourth set point.
It was all one-way traffic in the second set, as Murray had to save a match point to avoid being on the wrong end of a bagel.
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