Miami (AFP) – Reigning French Open champion Coco Gauff advanced to the third round of the WTA and ATP Miami Open on Friday, rallying to defeat Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Rain disrupted early afternoon play several times at Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, before American fourth seed Gauff fought back to reach the third round.
“The last time we played I didn’t win, so I just wanted to overcome that feeling,” said Gauff, who fell to the Italian last month in Doha. It was Gauff’s first match since she retired in the middle of a third-round match 12 days ago at Indian Wells with a “scary” left arm injury. “It has been a tough week,” Gauff said. “I think it made me realize how much I love this sport and love playing it.”
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Cocciaretto, ranked 44th, broke for a 4-3 lead in the first set on a cross-court backhand winner. The Italian saved a break point in the eighth game and broke again in the ninth on a forehand winner to take the first set. “She takes the ball so early, you don’t have a lot of time to react,” Gauff said of her success on longer rallies. “Today, once I got adjusted to the tempo of play I was able to control the rallies when they went the distance.”
After an early exchange of breaks in the second set, Gauff broke for a 5-4 lead when Cocciaretto hit a forehand long and then held serve for the set. In the third, Gauff netted a forehand to surrender a break and give Cocciaretto a 2-0 lead. But the American broke back in the third game and took a 3-2 edge when Cocciaretto sent a backhand long. Gauff broke in the ninth game for the victory in two hours and 15 minutes, converting her third match point when the Italian sent a forehand long.
Gauff advanced to a third-round match against American Alycia Parks, who ousted Greece’s Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-3. On the men’s side, American Ethan Quinn upset Norway’s 11th-seeded Casper Ruud 6-4, 7-6 (9/7). World number 56 Quinn, a 22-year-old former US college champion, saved seven set points in the second set on the way to victory.
American sixth seed Amanda Anisimova outlasted Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 to reach the third round. Anisimova will next face Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva, who advanced when Spaniard Cristina Bucsa retired trailing 6-2, 3-2.
Top-ranked defending champion Aryna Sabalenka faced 39th-ranked American Ann Li in a match moved to the third show court as organizers hustled to get the rain-hit tournament back on schedule. That paved the way for an only slightly delayed night session featuring world number one Carlos Alcaraz playing his second-round opener against Brazilian teen Joao Fonseca. The 22-year-old Spaniard, who completed a career Grand Slam with his seventh major title at the Australian Open, is 16-1 on the season after a title in Doha was followed by his semi-final exit in Indian Wells.
Women’s world number two Elena Rybakina, the reigning Australian Open champion who lost last weekend’s Indian Wells final to Sabalenka, faces 75th-rated Kazakhstan compatriot Yulia Putintseva in the final Stadium Court match.
© 2024 AFP
