MELBOURNE, Australia—American Coco Gauff didn’t make it easy on herself in her first-round match at an Australian Open tuneup event on Monday.
She 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 () 7-6 (5) at the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Gippsland Trophy.
“All the training I did in the off-season 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.
All six tuneup tournaments are being played this week at Melbourne Park ahead of the February 8 start of the Australian Open.
The first major of the year was delayed by three weeks to allow for Covid-19 protocols which required all people arriving into Australia to spend 14 days in quarantine.
The biggest men’s tournament is the Association of Tennis Professionals Cup team event, which starts Tuesday. The other men’s tournaments are the Great Ocean Road Open and the Murray River Open.
In addition to Gippsland Trophy, the WTA has the Yarra Valley Classic and the Grampians Trophy.
The Grampians event is a 28-draw tournament and open only to players who were forced into hard lockdown for 14 days without the benefit of practice because of positive Covid-19 cases on their charter flights to Australia. AP