Sawt Falasteen - Top seed Gauff rallies to reach WTA Montreal fourth round

The top-seeded American, who won her second Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, again struggled with her serve but held her nerve for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over former world number nine Kudermetova.

"The goal of the game is to survive and advance," Gauff said. "It's not my best, but it was good enough for today and that's all I can ask for."

Gauff arrived in Montreal having lost her tournament openers at Wimbledon and Berlin in the wake of her French Open triumph.

She struggled mightily in her first match in Montreal but came up with a win over Danielle Collins despite 23 double faults.

The numbers weren't quite as ugly against Kudermetova, but 14 double faults were damaging enough.

Seven of them came in the first set, as Gauff let a 4-1 lead get away.

She had three more double faults in the opening game of the second set to hand Kudermetova a service break, but broke back to level the set at 3-3 and broke Kudermetova to force a third, seizing a 2-0 lead and powering home from there.

"I'm sure everybody could read my body language," said Gauff, whose frustration was clear.

"But mentally I'm very proud of myself. There's obviously parts of my game to work on, one of that being the serve.

"And the fact that I'm winning these matches not feeling my best is definitely something to be proud of."

In other third-round action, American McCartney Kessler shocked world number five Mirra Andreeva, who got off to a strong start but couldn't hang on in a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 loss.

Andreeva, the 18-year-old Russian who electrified the WTA with back-to-back 1000 level wins this year, was playing her first tournament since a quarter-final run at Wimbledon and her first match of the week after a first-round bye and a second-round walkover.

She jumped to a quick 3-1 lead, but Kessler twice regained a break and after Andreeva failed on two attempts to serve out the opening set the American won the last three points of the tiebreaker to pocket the set.

Kessler seized the initiative in the second, breaking Andreeva twice on the way to a 4-1 lead.

Making matters worse for the inconsistent Andreeva, she took a hard spill in the second set, taking a medical time out to have her left ankle bandaged in what could be a worrying sign with the US Open due to start on August 24.

Kessler will fight for her first WTA 1000 quarter-final appearance against Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk, who beat Daria Kasatkina 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).

W.AbuLaban--SF-PST