American teenager Coco Gauff built a big lead early then had to dig deep late for a 6-4, 6-4 victory over four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka on Thursday (Friday IST) at the WTA hardcourt tournament in San Jose, California.
The 18-year-old, who reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open in June, needed just one break of serve to seize the first set 6-4 in the blockbuster encounter.
With booming serves and matching ground strokes, she then roared to a 5-1 lead in the second set.
But the Japanese superstar, unseeded in her first tournament since an opening-round exit at Roland Garros, didn't go down without a fight.
She saved match points — all on her own serve, before Gauff was finally able to serve it out. "Even though I was up 5-1 and 40-0 I knew I didn't have the match in the bag yet and obviously she proved that," Gauff said.
"Whenever you play Naomi she can play lights-out tennis. I feel like maybe two of the match points I had an actual shot on.
It was, and sixth-seeded Gauff advanced to a quarter-final clash with second-seed Paula Badosa of Spain.
In other second-round action, unseeded American Shelby Rogers toppled top-seed Maria Sakkari 6-1, 6-3.
Fourth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka and ninth-seed Veronika Kudermetova made it through to the quarters. Sabalenka beat American Caroline Dolehide 4-7, 6-1, 7-5 and Kudermetova topped American Claire Liu 6-2, 7-5.
