Gauff saves two MP against Alexandrova to reach Dubai DFT Championships R2

Coco Gauff was one of the players that stepped out for the first day of the Dubai DFT Championships and she prevailed against Ekaterina Alexandrova to reach R2.

It was a very exciting match in Dubai today between Gauff and Alexandrova with the American ultimately coming out on top 7-6(3) 2-6 7-6(8). The match lasted over two hours and it was many twist and turns. The opening set was Gauff jump out to a 3-1 lead after which the Russian had a run of her own eventually taking a 5-4 lead. She then served for the set but failed to clinch it so we ended up in a tiebreak where Gauff proved more composed winning it 7-4.

The 2nd set was a complete downer for Gauff who lost her serve early on and never truly recovered. The Russian would later add another before closing it out at 6-2. Despite losing that set convincingly she did not collapse and broke Alexandrova immediately in the 3rd. The Russian would make it 1-1 in the next game but Gauff would go on a 4-game run taking the 5-2 lead. Alexandrova would not go down easily and she pulled one break back to make it 5-4.

Then Gauff served for the match for a 2nd time but once again she failed to close it out losing the game to make it 5-5. Gauff broke Alexandrova to take a 6-5 lead but failed to serve out the match for a 3rd time. In the tiebreak Gauff saved two match points en route to the 10-8 victory.

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