American teenager Coco Gauff stepped in at the last minute to beat Switzerland’s Stefanie Vogele in straight sets to advance through to the round of 16 at the Linz Open in Austria.
Gauff, 15, stepped in for sixth seed Greece’s Maris Sakkari, who withdrew with a wrist injury, to beat Vogele 6-3, 7-6(3) in the round of 32. The 15-year-old failed to make the main draw of the tournament, losing in straight sets to Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch in the second round of qualifying on Monday.
Gauff emerged victorious following a tough battle with Vogele, with the Swiss pushing her to a second-set tiebreaker in a match that took over two hours. The American is playing in her first tournament since advancing to the third round of the US Open, where she fell to then-world No. 1 Naomi Osaka.
Gauff will now face Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova in the round of 16.
Germany’s Julia Gorges beat Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan in straight sets, while Laura Siegemund edged France’s Fiona Ferro.