Coco Gauff fought to win her 15th consecutive match with a straight-sets victory over
Veronika Kudermetova 7-6 (5), 6-2 at the WTA
China Open.
The third seed took to the court in the fourth round at the National Tennis Center in Beijing after ousting Ekaterina Alexandrova in a closely-contested straight-sets win and overcoming a three-set battle against Petra Martic. This is Gauff's first event since she achieved her first-ever Grand Slam title at the US Open last month.
Meanwhile, sixteenth seed Kudermetova entered the WTA 1000 tournament on a high after she won her second WTA title at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo last week. She received a performance bye in the first round before coming back from a set down against Lesia Tsurenko to win 3-6, 6-0, 6-0.
Gauff prevails in close first set before dominating second
The first set was a continuation of the close-knit battles that Gauff has experienced at this tournament. The American achieved an early break in Kudermetova's first service game of the match and held serve to build up a 3-0 lead.
From there, the Russian fought back to hold her serve before taking it to a deuce on Gauff's service game when a low return led the 19-year-old to hit the net and give Kudermetova break point. The 26-year-old successfully converted this with a well-angled shot and broke back to put the set on serve.
Eventually, a tiebreak was required to decide the first set. Gauff's shots moved with power and spin, helping her to win the first point. The two players then stayed even until 5-5, when Gauff was able to pull away at the last minute. A double fault from Kudermetova gave her set point which she won after her opponent hit the ball wide.
The second set was much more straightforward for Gauff as she once again broke Kudermetova in her first service game. Shortly after, she went up a double break as her opponent kept amassing unforced errors.
Although Kudermetova was able to hold a couple of service games to avoid a bagel, the fight appeared to have left her after losing the nail-biting tiebreak in the first set. Ultimately, Gauff held her double break and won the match.
She will face the winner of the match between World No. 6 Maria Sakkari and home player Xinyu Wang in the next round at the China Open.
