Coco Gauff, of the United States, hits a return to Naomi Osaka, of Japan, at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic tennis tournament in San Jose, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. (AP |
Coco Gauff held off four-time major champion Naomi Osaka 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday night to advance to the quarterfinals at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic.
Gauff, the No. 6 seed, held all of her serves in the opening
set and finished the 45-minute session with three aces. Osaka had the first
double-fault of the match early in the second set and Gauff took advantage for
a 2-1 lead. Gauff quickly built a double-break lead at 5-1 and led 40-0 before
Osaka saved four match points and used her first ace to make it 5-2.
Osaka then broke Gauff for the first time in the match and overcame another 40-0 deficit with five straight points for 5-4. But Gauff closed it out on her eighth match point with an unreturnable serve.
“The most proud was how I responded mentally,” Gauff said.
“I could have easily folded in those couple of double-faults and match points
that I lost. But I kept telling myself ‘Another point, another chance’ and then
the music kind of helped on the bench. I was trying to sing along to the song
to get me out of the match.”
Gauff’s victory evened the series with Osaka at two wins
apiece.
“I lost the match today but I feel really confident in who I
am,” Osaka said. “I feel like the pressure doesn’t beat me. I am the pressure.
I’m really happy with that.”
Gauff will face No. 2 seed Paula Badosa on Friday. Other
winners in San Jose were Shelby Rogers and No. 4 seed Aryna Sabalenka.
Rogers beat top-seeded Maria Sakkari 6-1, 6-3 to reach the
quarterfinals for the third time this season. Coming off an opening-round win
against 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, she beat Sakkari, a 2018
finalist and 2019 semifinalist in San Jose, for the third straight time.
Sabalenka came back from trailing 5-3 in the third set to
edge Caroline Dolehide 5-7, 6-1, 7-5. Sabalenka overcame 20 double-faults in
the match to advance to play No. 7 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia.
The schedule for Friday in the hard-court U.S. Open tune-up includes Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur, who will face Veronika Kudermetova. -AP
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