Legend Chris Evert, who is currently battling cancer, has managed to grab time to send an inspiring message to Coco Gauff after the American survived a grueling second-round match at Wimbledon on Wednesday.
The No. 7 seed defeated Solana Sierra 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(7) after fighting the Argentinian in a three-set thriller. The match has now been considered one of Gauff’s most stunning escapes, as she narrowly edged out the win in the final set after trailing 4-7 in the tie-breaker in the third set.
Evert, who has once again been diagnosed with ovarian cancer for the third time, said in a tweet that Gauff managed to pull off a big one and applauded her resilience, despite admitting that this was not her best performance.
“Not her best tennis, but
@CocoGauff
has legendary fight, and that is a big part of sport…👏👏👏👏 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼”
Evert decided to celebrate the fighting spirit of Gauff, as the 18-time Grand Slam winner has herself been fighting through a health scare every single day since being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Coco Gauff Survives a Tough 2R Wimbledon Match
This was the third time that Coco Gauff had met Solana Sierra on a tennis court, after having already beaten the Argentinian twice this year. However, her third clash with Sierra, this time in Wimbledon, was Gauff’s most demanding battle in recent times.
The American comfortably won the first set 6-3 but suffered a shocking loss in the second set 3-6, which pushed the match into a deciding third set. Gauff was losing five games to three and was just one more game away from crashing out of SW19.
The set then reached 6-6, resulting in a tiebreaker where Gauff again was down by 7-4 but then made an astonishing comeback by winning six points in a row and, after lasting for 2 hours and 8 minutes, finally clinched victory.
Gauff opened her SW19 campaign with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch, and her second-round win has booked an all-American third-round clash between Gauff and Claire Liu, scheduled for Friday.
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