Coco Gauff’s title defense at the China Open remains alive — but only after fending off a supreme challenge from Leylah Fernandez. The No. 2 seed led by a set and a break, then 5-2 with a match point in the decider, but ultimately needed 2 hours and 45 minutes to gut out a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 third-round victory.

Beijing: Scores | Draws | Order of play

Gauff had not dropped a set to Fernandez in two previous professional encounters, both on hard courts, and one junior meeting. Those matches had been characterized by the Canadian’s inability to maintain the offensive level needed to hit through Gauff for an entire set.

That changed in a Diamond Court barnburner which saw Fernandez deliver high-quality front-foot tennis for almost three hours. At times, she even gave Gauff a taste of her own medicine with remarkable defense. However, the defending champion rose to the challenge in style. After a knife-edge start to the third set which saw five consecutive service breaks, she pulled away — and then, despite Fernandez pegging her back and threatening to pull off a remarkable comeback, Gauff held her nerve in the final two games of the match.

Gauff will face Belinda Bencic in the fourth round after the No. 15 seed came from a set and 3-1 down to defeat qualifier Priscilla Hon 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Gauff leads their head-to-head 3-2, including 2-1 in 2025.

Twists and turns: As Gauff built a 6-4, 1-0 lead with a break in the second set, the match had followed much the same pattern as their previous encounters. Fernandez had her moments of intermittent brilliance, but Gauff was able to lock in during the longer exchanges and the most important points. She broke Fernandez for 3-2 after turning defense into attack over 20 strokes, putting away a superbly angled smash to finish; and, after a pair of Gauff double faults had enabled Fernandez to level at 4-4, the American broke again for 5-4 after superlative defense led to Fernandez netting a drive volley.

Fernandez kept coming, though, and took advantage of Gauff’s first serve percentage dropping from 75% to 53% in the second set. She broke back for 1-1 in the backhand winner and saved three break points to hold for 3-2. At 5-4, a pair of remarkable points — a finely-cut counter-drop and a phenomenal defensive point that ended with Gauff, for once, netting the short backhand — enabled Fernandez to level the match.

The pair went toe-to-toe through the first half of the second set, unleashing their best tennis on return in a riveting stretch of play. Gauff broke through with the first hold of serve for 4-2, sealing it with the best point of the match — another astonishing feat of defense that saw her thread an angled forehand pass past Fernandez. But serving for the match at 5-2, Gauff sent a forehand long on match point — sparking another thrilling resurgence from Fernandez.

As Gauff’s double fault tally rose to nine and her play grew passive, the 2021 US Open finalist seemed to have all the momentum to snatch her first ever win in their rivalry. But at 5-5, a familiar dynamic came into play again. Unable to hit through Gauff consistently, Fernandez netted a forehand on the fourth break point of the game. Serving for the match for a third time, Gauff made no mistake, with a bold serve-and-volley play sealing her third match point.

New balls key for Gauff: “She definitely played great tennis,” said Gauff afterwards. £I thought she was being aggressive, striking the ball pretty well. She wasn’t really giving me much free points either. I wish I was more aggressive in some moments. I could tell she stepped up the aggressiveness in the second. I think in that 3-2 game on those break points, I should have put the ball deeper and maybe tried to get her to open up the court.

“The conditions were so slow, which I feel like she does well with that because she likes to take the ball so early. So I felt like my heaviness wasn’t doing a lot with her as the balls got older. I found when I had new balls, I would win, like, two or three games in a row.

“I think the toughest part was just dealing with the conditions and trying to feel like I could hit through her, but I couldn’t do that as well today as I felt like I did earlier this year.”