LEXINGTON: US teen Coco Gauff notched another impressive tennis victory on Wednesday, toppling second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals of the Top Seed Open tournament in Lexington.

Gauff, playing her first tournament in the coronavirus-disrupted season since she stunned defending champion Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open, lined up a quarter-final clash with eighth-seeded Tunisian Ons Jabeur, a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 winner over Olga Govortsova.

“I’m just happy to have pulled it through,” Gauff said after coming out on top in a see-saw battle that lasted two hours and 24 minutes in what was her third career victory over a top-15 opponent.

Up 5-2 in the first set, the 16-year-old American would need a tie-breaker to put it away.

Sabalenka, who won her third career Premier 5 title in Qatar before the WTA Tour was suspended because of the Covid-19 pandemic, took a 5-2 lead in the second set and held off a challenge from Gauff to knot the match at a set apiece.

The third set opened with a string of service breaks, Sabalenka twice clawing back a break.

But Gauff gained a break to lead 5-4 and served out the match with an angled forehand winner.

Gauff, who won her first WTA title at Linz last year, said she had room to improve on her serve after hitting 10 double-faults and was broken seven times.Govortsova, meanwhile, had been seeking her first WTA quarter-final since 2014.

In other second-round matches, Czech Marie Bouzkova beat Russian Anna Blin­kova 6-4, 6-2 to line up a clash with American Jen Brady, who toppled sixth-seeded Magda Linette of Poland 6-2, 6-3.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2020