Coco Gauff overcame late nerves to beat Maria Sakkari 7-6 (1), 6-2 and reach the round of 16 at Indian Wells on Monday, as her fellow American Madison Keys held off Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-7 (8), 6-4.
Gauff, the No. 3 seed, was in fine form until the final game, when she produced six double-faults before closing it out on her sixth match point with a forehand winner.
“Except the last game, I thought I played a great match. Just trying to look at the positives,” said Gauff, who had redemption on her mind after losing to Sakkari in the semifinals of last year’s BNP Paribas Open. “Obviously I was a bit disappointed with the last game but that’s just the perfectionist in me.”
She will next play Belinda Bencic, whom she has defeated twice before, most recently in the round of 16 in Melbourne this year.
“It was a bit tricky conditions. I think we were both struggling a little bit with finding the rhythm, and I was just trying to stay solid on my end of the court,” Gauff said.
After trading breaks again early in the second set, Gauff broke Sakkari to love in the fifth game and looked ready to run away with the momentum.
But the serving struggles she has fought mightily to overcome undermined her best efforts toward the end, and she was forced to save four break points in the final game to keep it to two sets.
“Always an honor and privilege to play in front of this crowd,” said Gauff, giving credit to the partisan U.S. fans who powered her across the finish line in the California desert.
Newly minted Australian Open champion Keys saved 12 of the 15 break points she faced to secure her 14th straight match victory, despite letting four match points slip away in the second set.
The fifth-seeded Keys, who lost to Mertens in their two previous meetings, fired five aces to set up a fourth-round meeting with Donna Vekic, who defeated American Emma Navarro 7-6 (5), 6-1.
“Overall in Australia I played some really good tennis, and I think the further away from it you get, the more you kind of forget about the lulls of matches and the moments where you weren’t playing great,” Keys said. “As great as Australia was and all the wins that I got, there were still some moments in matches where I didn’t play great or things got away from me. So just being really conscious of that.”
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka used her powerful serve to defeat Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-2, bringing her best form to Indian Wells after suffering early exits at the Qatar Open and in Dubai.
It took little time for Sabalenka to adjust to the windy conditions, as she sprinted through the first set and quickly recovered after dropping her serve early in the second. She will next play British lucky loser Sonay Kartal.
“It wasn’t as easy as the score looks like. It was tough conditions out there, and happy with the way I managed that,” Sabalenka said.
Jasmine Paolini, the No. 6 seed, defeated Jaqueline Cristian 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the evening session.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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