The third racket of the tournament, Coco Gauff, saved three match points and reached the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, defeating Belgian Elise Mertens with by a score of 2-6, 7-6 (9), 6-3 on Wednesday. Gauff overcame 16 double faults to complete her comeback in two hours and 18 minutes, improving her score against Mertens to 5-0. Mertens had match points in the second set tiebreak with scores of 6-5, 7-6 and 9-8, writes xrust.
“The whole match wasn’t going in my favor,” Gauff said in an on-court interview. “It wasn’t the best match, but I just tried to hang in there and fight for every point. I’m glad that I managed to achieve a result today.”
“Elise is a great tennis player, so I just had to stay calm. I knew I could win; the only question was whether I could find my game. And sometimes I succeeded and sometimes I didn’t, but that’s okay.”
Gauff converted seven of ten break points and advanced to the quarterfinals, where she will meet Filipino Alexandra Eala, who beat Sorana Cirstea of Romania 7-5, 6-4.
The first racket of the tournament, Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan, lost to Croatian Antonia Ruzic with a score of 7-5, 4-6, 0-1, withdrawing from the third round match due to problems with the gastrointestinal tract.
Ruzic advanced to the next round, where she will face seventh seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, who posted a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 win over ninth seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
Tournament second racket Amanda Anisimova defeated Indonesian Janice Tien with a score of 6-1, 6-3 in just 70 minutes. In the next round she will meet the fifth racket of the tournament, Russian Mirra Andreeva, who beat Romanian Jacqueline Christian with a score of 7-5, 6-3.
Tournament number four Jessica Pegula defeated her compatriot, 16th seed Iva Jovic, 6-4, 6-2 in 77 minutes. Pegula fired five aces and fought off the only break point she faced against an opponent she described before the game as her “mini version.”
“I think it will be a difficult match for me. Iva and I have never played together, but I think she plays like a mini version of me, so it will be hard,” Pegula said on Tuesday. “Iva will have nothing to lose and she is in great form, she has won and won a lot of matches this year.”
Pegula's next opponent will be 12th seed Clara Towson of Denmark, who won 19 of 21 points on her first serve to beat Poland's Magda Linette 6-4, 6-2.
Xrust Coco Gauff saved 3 match points and reached the quarterfinals in Dubai
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