Coco Gauff prevailed in her opening match at the China Open on Friday evening, defeating Clara Burel 7-5, 6-3 to reach the third round in Beijing.

In her first match since her fourth-round loss to Emma Navarro in her US Open title defense, No. 4 seed Gauff of the United States earned a 100-minute victory over world No. 56 Burel of France. With the score at 5:4 in the first set, Gauff had to save a set point before he triumphed.

Next: Gauff will next face No. 26 seed Katie Boulter from Great Britain in the round of 32 on Sunday. Boulter defeated Gauff’s fellow American Taylor Townsend 6-4, 6-4 on Friday.

Gauff and Boulter have split their two previous meetings, with Boulter winning in three sets at the WTA 500 Melbourne in 2021 and Gauff picking up a straight-set victory at the WTA 1000 Montreal last year.

Fast Facts: Gauff had already been challenged by Burel at their previous meeting. In Indian Wells earlier this year, Burel pushed Gauff all the way to a third-set tiebreak before the American eked out a narrow victory.

With her somewhat more straightforward victory on Friday, the 20-year-old Gauff has now won 46 games in WTA 1000 hard court events. This means that Caroline Wozniacki has the most WTA 1000 hard court match wins before the age of 21 (since the WTA 1000 class began in 2009).

This was also Gauff’s 30th consecutive victory over a player ranked outside the top 50. The last time Gauff lost to a player ranked below No. 50 in the world was her loss to her Grand Slam colleague Sofia Kenin in the first round of Wimbledon 2023, 15 months ago.

Game moments: On Friday, both players stormed the net regularly and it was Gauff who took the first 4-2 lead. However, Burel won the next three games and reached her set point 5:4.

But Burel didn’t take advantage of her chance and sent a volley at the end of a rally, and Gauff escaped danger with a break to make it 5-5. With the score at 6-5, Gauff needed four set points of her own before securing the first set by breaking serve with an error-forcing backhand.

In the second set, Gauff finally took the lead after Burel committed a double fault when the score was 4:3. With the score at 5:3, Gauff secured the victory, escaped two break points and reached match point with an ace. Gauff completed the victory after a backhand from Burel hit the net.

Gauff collected 17 break points in the game and converted five of these chances. The American had 20 winners, Burel 13, denying the Frenchwoman her second career top 10 win.

There’s more to come…