Having played Coco Gauff twice already in 2026 before facing her in the second round of Wimbledon, Argentina’s Solana Sierra had gotten progressively more comfortable with the daunting prospect of playing the two-time Grand Slam singles champion. After winning just two games in their first-ever meeting, at the United Cup in January, Sierra pushed Gauff to the brink at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, holding a 3-0 final-set lead before losing six of the last seven games.

On Wednesday, she came even closer — before Gauff pulled off another great escape. Trailing 5-3 in the final set –and 7-4 in the subsequent deciding tiebreak — Gauff won six straight points in the thrilling conclusion to claim a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6[7] victory in 2 hours and 8 minutes.

Despite losing in three tense sets to Anastasia Potapova last month at Roland Garros, Gauff’s latest final-set heroics continued a trend for her on the biggest stages. She is now 22-7 in three-set matches at Grand Slams in her career.

A “happy and proud” Gauff credited Sierra — who nearly doubled Gauff’s groundstroke winner total — for her level of play when she addressed the crowd after the match. But she said that the mental toughness honed through repeatedly coming through such situations previously is what carried her through.

“I was just reminding myself, and my coach always tells me, ‘Remember who you are,'” the two-time Grand Slam champion said. 

She later shed further light on her mentality in her post-match press conference.

“I think sometimes I feel like I have a bit like impostor syndrome,” she said. “I’ve talked about this before. Maybe having my success, but sometimes forgetting about it, or maybe thinking I almost don’t deserve it a little bit. I don’t know, just reminding myself of the career that I’ve had so far at 22 is definitely up there with a lot of people. Obviously I have so much ambition to do even more.

“I think I just have to remind myself that, yes, the girl I’m playing is tough. Regardless of who it is, it’s tough. But I also have to remember that they’re probably thinking the same thing about me.”

“I’m just trying to take it one point at a time,” she added. “Honestly, Roland Garros I was two points away from winning at one point, so … for me, I was just thinking about, ‘OK, I can definitely turn this around. I felt like I was having a lot of chances in the break opportunities. I just wasn’t quite converting them. I was just keeping the faith that eventually I’ll get my one break. Once I got that, I was able to relax. Obviously a tiebreaker is always nerve-wracking. I don’t know, [I was] trying to chop and chop and make the lead not as big of a gap. That was the focus.”

A critical moment came when the tiebreak score was event at 7-7. She turned around a rally that Sierra had control off with a one-handed backhand passing shot winner — a wing-and-a-prayer-type shot that Gauff confessed she couldn’t repeat if she tried, even if she recalled hitting a similar one in practice. 

“Probably not always good to hit a dropshot there. I don’t know, at that point, I thought I have to commit and trust myself,” she said. 

“She hit a good shot back. … I didn’t really think, honestly. It was just one of those things that you play doubles, you work on reactions for moments like that. It’s not necessarily something you think about, honestly. My thought was just to get the ball over the net.”

For a spot in the Round of 16, Gauff will face fellow American Claire Liu — another match-up she historically enjoys. Though they have not played since 2024, Gauff is 2-0 against her countrywoman and hasn’t lost a set.

“She’s a great player. I think grass is one of her favorite surfaces. The next match will definitely be tough,” Gauff said of the former junior Wimbledon champion, who is currently ranked No. 146 and has won five matches thus far after coming through qualifying.

“I feel like anytime you’re playing a qualifier, it’s always tough because they have three matches already. She won two matches here, so she has a lot more momentum maybe than I have right now. But I don’t know, I feel confident. I feel like today was definitely a big test. Hopefully, you know, on, I don’t know what day it is, but two days from now I can play good tennis against her.”