Coco Gauff picked up her first win since the Australian Open on Saturday, but she had to go down to the absolute wire to do so.

No. 3 seed Gauff of the United States outlasted Japan's Moyuka Uchijima 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4) in an incredibly tight second-round meeting at the WTA 1000 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.

Indian Wells: Draws | Scores | Order of play

After her first-round bye this week, Gauff snapped a three-match losing streak by overcoming Japanese No. 1 Uchijima in their first career meeting. The 2023 US Open champion had to battle through three extremely close sets before ousting 52nd-ranked Uchijima in a grueling 2 hours and 33 minutes.

"It was a tough match," Gauff said afterwards in press. "I didn't play as well as I would like to, but full credit to her. She stepped it up when she needed to. But, yeah, just happy to get through it."

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A 2024 semifinal rematch awaits: In the third round, Gauff will face another player who has been ranked inside the Top 3 of the PIF WTA Rankings: Maria Sakkari of Greece. No. 29 seed Sakkari defeated Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria 6-0, 6-3 earlier on Saturday.

Sakkari leads Gauff 5-3 in their head-to-head, including a win in their most recent meeting, which was in Indian Wells last year. Sakkari topped Gauff 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 in the 2024 semifinals to make her second BNP Paribas Open final in a three-year span.

"Last year, that was such a long kind of day," Gauff said, looking back on her last meeting with Sakkari. "It was rainy and we stopped and started so many times.

"I guess my keys will just be to focus on my end of the court and accept that she's going to hit some great shots. She's a great player. I think just trying to focus on my end and be ready and know that it's going to be a physical match."

Reclaiming her winning ways: Gauff started the year with a 9-0 win-loss record, leading the United States to the United Cup title before her perfect run was ended by Paula Badosa in the Australian Open quarterfinals.

After that, though, Gauff went 0-2 in the Middle East swing, losing to Marta Kostyuk at Doha and her fellow American McCartney Kessler in Dubai. Thus, Gauff entered the Sunshine Double in the midst of her first three-match losing streak since the end of 2022.

Despite being pushed to the limit by Uchijima, Gauff finally got back into the winner's circle on Saturday. She is now the fourth American woman to register 10 or more wins at Indian Wells before turning 21, following Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams and Venus Williams. 

"I think just today is just one of those days where I just did not feel great on the court and because of the last couple of weeks, I'm pretty hard on myself," Gauff said. "I just wanted to do better."

Back-and-forth battle: Gauff came back from an early break down to start Saturday’s match, pulling level at 2-2 and breaking Uchijima at 5-4 to seal the one-set lead.

However, double faults impeded Gauff’s game in the second set -- the American hit four in her first two service games to cede a quick double-break advantage to Uchijima. Unseeded Uchijima fired a bevy of forehand winners throughout the remainder of the set, including one on her second set point to level the match.

Gauff built a seemingly commanding 4-0 lead in the third set, but Uchijima chipped away throughout, saving one match point at 5-3 and another at 5-4. More double faults reared their heads for Gauff -- she finished the match with a total of 21 -- and Uchijima was able to fight back all the way into a decisive third-set tiebreak.

In the breaker, Gauff hit a stellar rally pass to take a 3-1 lead, and the American nudged that start all the way to 6-2 and four more match points. Uchijima saved two more, but Gauff finally booked a third-round spot by forcing an error with one last forehand on her fifth match point.

"Double [faults], I've been in the practice of trying to fix things on my serve," Gauff said. "It was just an up-and-down process. It's tough out there.

"But, I mean, if I'm able to win matches playing kind of like [Grade] D tennis, then it gives me confidence just when I'm able to mesh things together, like I did earlier this season."