Coco Gauff started her campaign at the WTA 1000 China Open with a closely contested match against Ekaterina Alexandrova.

This was the American's first match since she achieved her maiden Grand Slam title at the US Open last month. The third seed showed resilience to win the match against the World No. 20 in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 as Alexandrova kept trying to fight back.

Gauff dominated play at first, going up a double break before her opponent had even got a game on the board. However, Alexandrova finally got into the match and came back to break Gauff in her third service game and avoid a bagel at the very least.

Things got more tricky for Gauff from this point on. She looked increasingly frustrated as Alexandrova built up three break points in the 19-year-old's next service game and broke back again to level the set.

There was the chance for another break in the Russian's next service game as it went to a deuce, but Alexandrova pulled off an ace to get the advantage and went on to secure the hold. Nevertheless, Gauff ensured that there would be a tiebreak at least when she held her serve once more. In the end, though, it turned out that she wouldn't need one, as she managed to break Alexandrova again in the next game and secure the set 7-5.

The second set was slightly more straightforward for the World No. 3, although Alexandrova kept pushing her throughout. In fact, the 28-year-old got a break point in Gauff's first service game, but the latter managed to hold. Almost the exact same thing happened in Gauff's next service game, leading Alexandrova to become increasingly frustrated.

After this, it was not long until Gauff secured another break and looked set to progress to the second round of the China Open. While serving for the set at 5-3, Alexandrova fought back again to equalize at 30-30. However, an unforced error from the Russian then gave Gauff a match point which she successfully converted when Alexandrova hit the ball into the net.

Gauff will face Petra Martic in the Round of 32 at the National Tennis Center in Beijing.