STUTTGART, Germany — Coco Gauff battled her way to the quarterfinals of the Porsche Grand Prix on Wednesday with a hard-fought 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win over compatriot Sachia Vickery.
The 134th-ranked Vickery created 19 break points but could only convert seven of them against the world No. 3. Gauff had 15 double faults in the match, but rallied from 4-2 down in the final set before winning in 2 hours, 26 minutes with her first match point.
Gauff, who received a first-round bye at the clay-court tournament, awaits the winner between No. 7 Qinwen Zheng and Marta Kostyuk.
Kostyuk earlier overcame former champion Laura Siegemund 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4 in their first-round match. The Ukrainian player twice served for the match in the second set only for Siegemund, who won in 2017, to take it to the third.
Ons Jabeur also had to fight hard to prevail in a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1) win over Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia. Jabeur was down a break in both the second and third sets before winning.
The Tunisian player next faces Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the second round.
Former No. 1 Angelique Kerber was playing 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu in a clash of wild cards later Wednesday, before No .2 Aryna Sabalenka was to play her fiend Paula Badosa of Spain.
Sabalenka finished runner-up on her last three appearances in Stuttgart, losing the final to former No. 1 Ashleigh Barty in 2021 and current No. 1 Iga Świątek in 2022 and 2023.
Eight of the top-10 ranked women are playing at the tournament.