Qualifier Trevisan overcomes Gauff in French Open thriller

PARIS, France - World No.159 Martina Trevisan's dream French Open run continued on Wednesday as she rallied from a set down to beat American teenager Coco Gauff, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, and reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

Making just her second Grand Slam main draw appearance, Trevisan scored her first tour-level victory over a Top 100 player when compatriot Camila Giorgi retired at 7-5, 3-0 in the opening round, and earned a second over the World No.51 in a thrilling two hour, 11-minute contest on Court Simonne-Mathieu. 

"I'm really happy, but I think I need more time to realize what happened tonight," Trevisan said after the match.

"I work every day to be here, to be in the third round of Grand Slam. It's not easy to reach this result, but I wake up every morning to think about my dream, and today, it realized one of my dreams."

Overwhelmed in the early stages of the match as she fell behind 4-0 and won just seven points, the 26-year-old left-hander started to work her way into the contest with increased rally tolerance and well-executed variety that moved Gauff around the court.

The Italian won three consecutive games to close the gap, and though Gauff showed her mettle by serving out the opener to love after failing to do so at 5-2, the Italian was well and truly in the contest from then on.

"Before the match, of course, I talked with my coach, but the important things today that I came in the court without thinking that I had to play with Coco Gauff, because everybody know that [she] is the most, the best young player in the world," Trevisan said.

"I came to the court to play my match and not to see my opponent, so I think this is the key of the match. I play every point without thinking that Coco is better than me ranking, she has a lot of experience in this court than me. 

"Every match that I played I came on court to think about my tennis, to think about my shot, think about hold my court, not to think about the opponent, so that's why I'm here."

Over the course of the late stages of the match, the 16-year-old American struggled for consistency on serve. Her first-serve percentage dipped to just 37 percent in the middle set, and though she rebounded to land 56 percent of her first serves in the decider, 15 of her 19 double faults in the match came in the second and third sets.

Gauff ultimately was broken nine times in the contest overall, including three times in the decisive set after leading by a break at 3-2.

 Serving for the match at 5-3 in the final set, Trevisan found herself points away from victory before Gauff made her final push, never allowing the qualifier to reach match point at that stage. A stretch of six straight points ended as Gauff held to love at 5-5, but in the face of adversity, Trevisan showed her mettle.

After toughing out a hold of serve at deuce to edge ahead once more, the qualifier finally sealed the upset as the teenager served two double faults and made two unforced errors in the final game. 

The final stat line proved that the Italian went toe-to-toe with Gauff from the baseline to seal the upset, as the left-hander recorded one more winner (24 to 23) and 14 fewer unforced errors (32 to 46) than her American foe.

In addition, Trevisan went 17-for-24 in finishing points at the net, while Gauff ventured forward 14 times and won nine of those points. 

Trevisan advances to a third-round meeting with No.20 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece, who overcame another qualifier in Russia's Kamilla Rakhimova, 7-6(0), 6-2, earlier in the day.