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Gauff outlasts Uchijima at Indian Wells for first win since Australian Open / Photo: Harry How - GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Gauff outlasts Uchijima at Indian Wells for first win since Australian Open
World number three Coco Gauff secured her first match win since the Australian Open on Saturday, scratching out a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) victory over Japan's Moyuka Uchijima in Indian Wells.
Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, coughed up 21 double faults among a stream of unforced errors and was often clearly frustrated.
She said she would have liked to play better, but after dropping her opening matches in at WTA tournaments in Qatar and Dubai in the wake of her Australian Open quarter-final exit she wasn't complaining.
"It's been a rough couple of weeks, and I'm just happy to get a win on the court," Gauff said. "No one likes to lose, and I came in here with determination. It wasn't my best tennis, but a win is a win."
Like all the seeds in the combined ATP Masters and WTA 1000 event, Gauff had a first-round bye, while Uchijima, ranked 52nd, beat Britain's Emma Raducanu in straight sets in the first round.
Gauff appeared to have taken control when she took a 4-0 lead in the third set over an opponent that had received treatment from a trainer before the set.
But the American twice failed to serve out the match but finally put it away in the tiebreaker on her fifth match point.
She earned a third-round meeting with Greece's Maria Sakkari, who also snapped a three-match skid with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova.
Sakkari beat Gauff in the semi-finals here last year to reach her second Indian Wells final in three years.
O.Hartmann--BlnAP
