Indian Wells: Gauff, Pegula reach round 16

Coco Gauff booked her place in the fourth round of the Miami Open for the second time in her career after coming from a break down to defeat lucky loser Oceane Dodin 6-4, 6-0.

The US Open champion and third seed has now won 22 of her last 23 matches on home soil dating back to her Washington title run last July. Her only loss in this stretch came to Maria Sakkari in the Indian Wells semifinals last week.

Gauff will bid to make her first Miami quarterfinal against No.23 seed Caroline Garcia who edged former No.1 Naomi Osaka 7-6(4), 7-5 to advance.

Gauff and Garcia have split their four prior meetings, with their last duel coming at the 2022 WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas.

Elsewhere, Jessica Pegula moved another step closer to her third consecutive Miami Open semifinal with a 7-5, 6-4 third-round victory over No.31 Leylah Fernandez of Canada on Sunday.

Pegula came back from a late break down in the opening set en route to a 1-hour and 41-minute win over Fernandez, the 2021 US Open runner-up.

The victory marks Pegula’s 50th match-win at WTA 1000 hard-court events. She is the fifth American to achieve 50 WTA 1000 match-wins on hard court since the WTA 1000 tier started in 2009. The others are Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys.

“Leylah’s a tough out,” Pegula said, after her win. “She seems to play even better when she plays against higher-ranked people, and she didn’t make it easy. I’m glad I had to tough my way through that match, and hopefully use that as some confidence going forward.”

Pegula boasts a 12-3 win-loss record at the Miami Open during the 2020s. She has yet to lose before the Round of 16 since a first-round defeat in her 2019 main-draw debut.

In her Miami Open semifinal runs from the past two years, Pegula has only been halted by the reigning Indian Wells champions. In 2022, she lost to Iga Swiatek, who completed that year’s Sunshine Double. Last year, Pegula fell to Elena Rybakina, who was a win away from her own Sunshine Double before losing to Petra Kvitova in the Miami final.

In the Round of 16, Pegula will face her fellow American, No.20 seed Emma Navarro, with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line. The 22-year-old Navarro continued the winningest season of her career by taking down No.12 seed Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 on Sunday.