Number 6 seed Coco Gauff eased past Canada’s Rebecca Marino 6-4 6-3 in 1 hour and 12 minutes on Stadium Court to reach the third round for the second consecutive year at the Miami Open.
Gauff converted five of her nine break points and came back from a break down in the second set to clinch her second win in as many meetings with Marino. Gauff had already beaten Marino en route to reaching her first Grand Slam singles final at Roland Garros last year.
Gauff earned an early break in the first set, but Marino pulled back on serve at 4-3 with back-to-back forehand winners. The US teenager fired her sixth ace before breaking Marino for the second time to seal the first set 6-4.
Gauff came back from a break down at both 2-1 and 3-2 and forced an error with a service return to take a 5-3 lead.
Marino earned a break point in the next game, but Gauff hit three consecutive serves to close out the second set 6-3.
Gauf set up a third round match against Anastasia Potapova. Gauff beat Potapova in three sets at the 2019 US Open.
“Today it was an up-and-down match, honestly. I did well in the returning part, considering Marino is a big server. I am happy with how I played. She is not an easy opponent. She makes a lot of big shots and doesn’t really give you a lot of rhythm. You just have to hang in there”, said Gauff.
Number 23 seed Zheng Qinwen came back from one set down to beat Irina-Camelia Zheng Quiwen 2-6 6-1 6-1. The Chnese 20-year-old player, who was forced to withdraw from Dubai and Indian Wells due to an abdominal injury, will take on Liudmila Samsonova, who cruised past Viktorija Golubic 6-1 6-1.
“At the beginning I was having to struggle a bit on court. It was tough to win a point. I was really happy to be on court, but in the beginning it looked like I was not so into the match. I did not find the match rhythm. At the start of the second set I felt a bit better, and I did pretty good at the third set. I was going really fast on court, especially hitting the ball really hard. In the second set I tried to slow down, keep the rally more instead of hitting really, trying to accelerate where I can but staying with the opponent. As my first match back, it’s not a bad start, but I hope I can play a bit better”, said Zheng Quinwen.
