{"id":658638,"date":"2026-05-09T17:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/658638\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T17:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T17:56:12","slug":"gauff-survives-sierra-in-rome-rally-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/658638\/","title":{"rendered":"Gauff Survives Sierra in Rome Rally \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, May 9, 2026
Photo credit: Internazionali BNL d\u2019Italia Facebook<\/p>\n

Streaks of slide marks etched the dirt like routes on a red clay map.<\/p>\n

Trailing 0-3 in the final set, Coco Gauff covered the court relentlessly rallying past Solana Sierra 5-7, 6-0, 6-4 into the Rome round of 16 today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough day for me. Yeah, it\u2019s one of those days where you don\u2019t feel great and you have to play a match,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cIt\u2019s like, I can\u2019t cuss, but yeah. That was today. I\u2019m happy I got through it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, one of those days I just didn\u2019t feel I guess motivated to go on the court. Then when you\u2019re on the court, you\u2019re motivated. You get too frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"tennis<\/a>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\n

The 2025 Rome runner-up overcame festering frustration, a sharp Sierra and that third-set deficit showing why staying power is one of her best assets. Gauff, who converted nine of 23 break points today, improved to 21-9 in three-set matches over the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

In her post-match presser, Gauff referenced personal issues she\u2019s been facing recently, but did not specify the exact problem she\u2019s confronting.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust personal things off court that I\u2019m just trying to get through, so,\u201d said Gauff. \u201cYeah, but then you also remember how much fun you have. I think my regret today was not enjoying the battle, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third-seeded Gauff will play a compatriot, either 16th-seeded Iva Jovic or Taylor Townsend, for a quarterfinal spot.<\/p>\n

Though Gauff stomped Sierra, 6-1, 6-1, in their lone prior meeting on the hard court of the United Cup in January, the 72nd-ranked Argentinean turned the tables on Rome\u2019s red clay today.<\/p>\n

Sierra held at love to level the opening set after 10 games then pounded away at the Gauff forehand breaking for 6-5. Sierra rallied from Love-30 down winning four points in a row to snatch a one-set lead.<\/p>\n

A revitalized Gauff tore through the shutout second set on the strength of three straight service breaks, dishing out the bagel to force a decider.<\/p>\n

In the final set, Sierra came out cracking drives into the corners in taking a 3-0 lead. Slapping her palm against her leg as if trying to jump-start her game, Gauff broke back at love in the fourth game.<\/p>\n

That break sparked a run of five games in a row as Gauff took charge and earned a match point on serve at 5-3. Sierra saved it and scored her sixth break to narrow the gap to 4-5.<\/p>\n

Sierra, who reached the Madrid round of 16 this month, saved a second match point in the 10th game. Gauff gained a third match point and Sierra spit up her fourth double fault to end it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, May 9, 2026Photo credit: Internazionali BNL d\u2019Italia Facebook Streaks of slide marks etched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-658638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}