Gauff escapes Vickery in Stuttgart second round

American Coco Gauff kept her unbeaten record against compatriots in 2024 alive the hard way in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. The World No.3 was pushed hard by qualifier Sachia Vickery in her first match of the clay-court season on Wednesday, but rallied from 4-2 down in the final set of a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win in 2 hours and and 27 minutes.

Gauff hadn't lost a match to a compatriot not named Jessica Pegula since 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin beat her in the first round at Wimbledon last year -- and in fact, hadn't lost a set in four matches against Americans in 2024. But after winning a first set that got more complicated after winning the first three games, the reigning US Open champion was given all she could handle by the former World No.73, now ranked No.134.

"She gets a lot of balls back and I was just trying to be patient and also be aggressive.  I think I got passive. She played well and I think I did a good job of staying in the match," Gauff said on-court afterwards. 

No lead proved safe for either of the two Americans -- namely, Gauff, who struggled to find her form off the ground and on serve for much of the match in her first clay-court match of the year. She double-faulted 15 times, which helped Vickery create 19 break point chances in the match, and the elder American converted on seven of them.

In all, the two players combined for 33 break point chances, and Gauff converted eight.

The most crucial of those came in the seventh game of the deciding set, as Vickery had turned it around from 2-0 down to 4-2 ahead. A four-deuce game saw both players with chances -- Gauff had three break points brushed aside, and Vickery had one chance for 5-2 -- but back-to-back double faults eventually gave Gauff the break back, and soon set the No.3 seed on the course for the comeback.

"I started to be more aggressive on her second serves, so I think she felt the pressure," Gauff said of that game, in which Vickery served three of her four doubles for the match.

Gauff is through to the quarterfinals at the WTA 500 event for the first time in her third appearance, and will next face with winner of the second-round match between No.5 seed Zheng Qinwen and Marta Kostyuk.