Fourth seed Coco Gauff dropped the first set without winning a single game but successfully rebounded to beat Dayana Yastremska with a score of 0-6, 6-2, 7-5 in their second-round encounter at the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday night.
This marked just the second occasion in her WTA career where Gauff recovered to win a match after losing the opening set 6-0. The previous instance was her comeback victory against Elise Mertens four years prior in Eastbourne.
Gauff now holds a 3-0 head-to-head record against Yastremska, with all their meetings on clay. However, this particular match proved challenging. The final set alone lasted over an hour.
Gauff established a 3-0 lead in the decider by breaking Yastremska`s serve twice, but Yastremska broke back twice herself to draw level at 3-3. Gauff regained the lead by breaking again for 5-3, but Yastremska fought off three match points on her own serve before ultimately equalizing at 5-5.
Gauff secured another break to lead 6-5 and then held serve to close out the match. Intriguingly, serve was broken in exactly half of the games played (7 out of 14 service games combined).
Yastremska`s career record against players ranked in the Top 10 now stands at 4 wins and 19 losses.
Played on Manolo Santana Stadium, the match mirrored an earlier dramatic comeback seen on the same court, where second seed Iga Swiatek recovered from a set and a break deficit against 19-year-old Filipina Alexandra Eala to win in three sets.
Gauff requires two more wins to advance to the quarterfinals, which would mark her best performance in her five appearances at the Madrid tournament. At 21 years old, Gauff holds the distinction of being the youngest player to win eight consecutive opening-round matches in clay WTA 1000 events since the format was introduced in 2009.
Gauff`s next opponent will be fellow American Ann Li, who defeated 25th seed Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Their third-round match is scheduled for Saturday.
