Coco GAUFF narrowly escapes another crushing defeat against Clara BUREL with deciding set tie-break win at Indian Wells

Coco Gauff is through to the third round of the Indian Wells Open, but in reality shouldn't be with Clara Burel letting slip a 5-2 advantage in the final set allowing the American to narrowly escape in a tie-break 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(3).

Gauff will now face Lucia Bronzetti and could be on course in the same section to meet Jessica Pegula. The American has not been on form since the Australian Open losing in a crushing defeat to Katerina Siniakova in Doha and then to Anna Kalinskaya albeit the Russian was superb in Dubai in the Quarter-Finals.

Burel blinked in the end and let Gauff off the hook as the American spent the match mostly with serve woes with breaks in the opening set for the Frenchwoman at nearly every juncture at 2-1, 3-2 and 5-2 which set her on course and despite losing her serve initially to make it 2-2, Burel was just that bit better and took the opener 6-2. Gauff showed a never say die attitude to make it 1-1 with a 6-3 second set going 4-2 up with two breaks on the spin which proved vital.

But this proved to be very much a flash in the pan as Burel took control again in the final set or so we thought. She went 4-0 and 5-2 up on Gauff breaking at every point in the opening few games and looked on course for the win. But every time she served for it, she blinked and when it was taken to a tie-break, the wheels fell off. Albeit the same can be said for Gauff who nearly let Burel back into the tie-break. She had three match points in a row as Burel made it 6-4 from 5-2 down, but she got over the line. A real skin saver from Gauff who will be counting her lucky stars tonight that she didn't have the same fate as Jessica Pegula against Burel in Melbourne earlier this year.