The world number three Coco Gauff won his first match victory since the Australian Open on Saturday, scratching a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) victory against Moyuka Uchijima in Japan in Indian Wells.
GAUFF, the US Open 2023 champion, has coughed 21 double defects from an unl forced error flow and was often clearly frustrated.
She said she would have liked to play better, but after abandoning her opening matches in WTA tournaments in Qatar and Dubai following her Australian release in the quarter -finals, she did not complain.
“It was a few weeks difficult, and I’m just happy to get a victory on the field,” said Gauff. “No one likes to lose, and I came here with determination. It was not my best tennis, but a victory is a victory.”
Like all the seeds of the combined ATP Masters and WTA 1000 event, GAUFF had a Bye in the first round, while Uchijima, ranked 52nd, beating Emma Raducanu British in two sets in the first round.
Gauff seemed to have taken control when she took an advance of 4-0 in the third set on an opponent who had received a treatment from a coach before the set.
But the American failed to serve the match but finally put him in the equal break in his fifth match point.
She won a third round meeting with Maria Sakkari from Greece, who also gained a scrap of three games with a 6-0, 6-3 victory against Viktoriya Tomova Bulgarian.
Sakkari beat Gauff in the semi-finals here last year to reach his second Indian Wells final in three years.
BB / Sept
