Gauff outlasts Putintseva in epic 3-hour match, moves to Rome R2

It was a very difficult match for Gauff against Putintseva who is a capable clay player despite being out of form.

The American teen had to go the full distance to move on at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia Rome defeating Putintseva 7-5 4-6 6-2. Putitnseva is a former Roland Garros quarterfinalist so her comfort level on clay is high but Gauff was still able to pull through.

As per usual, the match featured a lot of twists and turn so after taking a 2-0 lead Gauff found herself down 5-3 towards the end of the set. The drama did not end there as she went on a 4-0 run to close the opening set 7-5. Putintseva was undone by bad play on her 2nd serve compared to Gauff who was much better.

The 2nd set featured much better play from Putitnseva who eliminated some of the things she did badly in the first set and couple with Gauff's serving woes it proved enough to win it 6-3. Gauff faced a total of 14 break points in that set saving 11 but it was not enough.

She completely flipped the script in the 3rd serving much better and playing well. She attacked Putintseva on her 2nd serve winning most of those rallies. She served for the match at 5-3 but got broken easily by Putintseva. In the end, it only prolonged the inevitable as Gauff closed it out with 6-4 after 3 hours of play.