French Open champion Coco Gauff faced a tough challenge against Leylah Fernandez from Canada but managed to secure a hard-fought victory in three sets, with a scoreline of 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 at the China Open in Beijing on Sunday. Gauff, the defending champion and a crowd favorite in Beijing, overcame a stumble in the second set and had difficulty closing out the match in the third set. However, she eventually broke Fernandez in the 12th game of the deciding set to seal the win.
Ranked third in the world, Gauff will now go up against Belinda Bencic, who is ranked 16th in the world, in the upcoming WTA 1000-series tournament. In other matches on the same day, Eva Lys defeated Elena Rybakina 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, while McCartney Kessler was leading Barbora Krejcikova 1-6, 7-5, 3-0 before Krejcikova retired from the match.
The China Open is running alongside an ATP 500 men’s tournament where second-seeded Alexander Zverev came from behind to beat Corentin Moutet 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Zverev will face Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals, who defeated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 6-3.
Lorenzo Musetti, who recently apologized to Chinese fans, secured a straight-sets victory over Adrian Mannarino with a score of 6-3, 6-3 in a second-round match. Learner Tien also won his match against Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-2, setting up a quarterfinal clash with the 9th-ranked Musetti.
