Staff Reporter.
World No 3 Coco Gauff was pushed hard by American compatriot Sachia Vickery before overcoming the qualifier 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 at Stuttgart on Wednesday.
The US Open champion needed two hours 27 minutes to silence her second round opponent ranked 134th in the world.
Gauff began brightly, rattling off the first three games, but from then on it was to become an error-strewn struggle.
She double-faulted 14 times, enabling Vickery to get 19 break points, of which she converted seven.
Gauff converted six with the most important one coming in the seventh game of the deciding set.
Trailing 0-2, Vickery fought her way back to take a 4-2 lead, with Gauff then clinching the crucial game on her fourth break point.
Gauff will face the winner of the match between Zheng Qinwen and Marta Kostyuk in the quarterfinals of the WTA 500 event.
Later Wednesday former US Open champion Emma Raducanu faces three-time Grand Slam winner and former world No 1 Angelique Kerber for a place in the last eight.
At the weekend Baducanu led Britain past France and into the finals of the Billie Jean King Cup in November.
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 U.S. 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.