Coco Gauff didn’t make it easy on herself in her first-round match at the WTA’s Gippsland Trophy on Monday.
The 16-year-old American was up a service break in the second set and looked ready for straight-sets win until Jil Teichmann won the second-set tiebreaker. The players then went to a deciding-set tiebreaker before Gauff won 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5).
“All the training I did in the offseason meant that I could go three tough sets,” Gauff said on court after the match.
In another match at the same tournament, Australian Destanee Aiava beat Chloe Paquet 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 after saving 14 of 15 break points.
In other Gippsland Trophy matches, French veteran Alize Cornet beat local hope Ajla Tomljanovic 5-7, 6-1, 6-3. Cornet got an early break in the deciding set and fended off several comeback attempts by Tomljanovic, who is the No. 2-ranked Australian player behind world No. 1 Ash Barty.
Mayo Hibi beat Varvara Lepchenko 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-1 and Katie Boulter had a 6-1, 6-3 win over Anna Kalinskaya.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.