Gauff battles past Martic in epic battle to reach last 16 in Beijing

US Open champion Coco Gauff, the No 3 seed, edged out Croat Petra Martic 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (2) in an epic battle to reach the last 16 of the China Open on Tuesday.

Martic, ranked 48, served for the match at 5-4 in the third but Gauff played her best tennis in the deciding tiebreak to win it 7-2 after three hours, two minutes to extend her winning streak to 14 matches.

The 19-year-old American will play either Russian Veronika Kudermetova or Lesia Tsutenko of Ukraine next.

“I was just trying to play every ball,” a relieved Gauff said. “She raised her level, she was serving really well. I wasn’t playing my best in the whole, entire match but in the tiebreaker, I definitely played my best of the match.

“I want to get to the end and win, but every match I’m just trying to improve. These matches are going to make me tougher for the rest of the season.

“Today the struggle for me was honestly holding serve,” she added. “I started off serving well in the first set. I think she started to be more aggressive with the return, so it made me second-guess myself.”

“Overall I’m happy with today, it was a mental victory, and happy I was able to get through.”

Epic rally turns it in Gauff’s favour

After Martic could not serve it out, Gauff won a marathon rally to grab a mini break for 2-1 in the deciding-set tiebreak and pulled away for victory, making it 20 wins out of 21 matches since Wimbledon.

The 19-year-old American won against Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova (7-5, 6-3) in the previous round. Martic edged out Romanian Sorana Cirstea (6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (3)).