Fifteen-year-old Coco Gauff proved she’s not done defying the odds by advancing to the second round of the Linz Open after getting a lucky loser draw less than an hour before the match was set to begin.
Gauff defeated Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele 6-3 7-6 (7-3) in the match which lasted around two hours.
The teenager saved 62 per cent of the breakpoint opportunities against her.
The American, who lost in the qualifying round, was notified of her lucky loser draw 49 minutes before the match was scheduled to begin, a WTA spokeswoman told Reuters, but kept her nerve to fire off two aces on her way to a straight sets win.
“I didn’t know too much about my opponent,” Gauff said in a post-match news conference. “I think I just found out how she kind of played word of mouth.”
The performance came amid a transformative year for Gauff, who stunned Venus Williams in the first round of Wimbledon and electrified fans at Flushing Meadows before falling to Naomi Osaka in the third round of the US Open.
German fifth seed Julia Goerges eased to a 6-4 6-2 victory over Margarita Gasparyan while France’s Alize Cornet upset Wimbledon semi-finalist Barbora Strycova 6-4 6-4.
Alison Van Uytvanck defeated fellow Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure 6-3 6-2 and France’s Kristina Mladenovic beat Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova 6-1 7-5.
Germany’s Laura Siegemund also progressed after a hard-fought 6-2 5-7 7-5 win against France’s Fiona Ferro and Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina overcame Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.
Second seed Wang Qiang led a host of Chinese players into the second round of the Tianjin Open.
Wang defeated Australia’s Arina Rodionova 6-3 6-4 while there were also first-round wins for seventh seed Zheng Saisai, Peng Shuai, Wang Xinyu and Wang Xiyu.
Dayana Yastremska prevented a Chinese clean sweep, beating Zhu Lin 6-2 6-3, and Magda Linette was a 6-3 6-1 winner over Christina McHale.