Putintseva ousts defending champion Gauff on Day 3

Yulia Putintseva won the last four games to stun last season’s champion and No.2 seed Coco Gauff in a day three encounter at the Cincinnati Open on Thursday.

The 29-year-old Kazakhstani and  Birmingham champion Putintseva who is playing this week for the first time since reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon, upset American Coco Gauff from 4-2 down the final set  to record a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 victory, her 13th career Top 10 win.

“I think the level of the game was high, especially for those conditions — the courts are lightning fast, so I’m pretty happy to get through,” Putintseva said post-match.

“The whole match was a roller coaster. At this point, I was thinking I broke her a couple of times and it was not something special to break someone again. She hit two double faults, and I hit two good returns. She mishit it, the game changed immediately.

Putintseva will face Washington D.C. champion Paula Badosa in the Round of 16, the last Top 5 player Putintseva beat (via retirement in 2022, when she was ranked No.3) before this season. The Spaniard eased past No. 13 seed Anna Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2 earlier in the day to improve to 8-1 in the summer hard-court season.

Other notable results from day three saw Taylor Townsend continued her summer run, defeating No.9 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 to her third consecutive Round of 16 on the North American hard courts.

She will face either Toronto champion Jessica Pegula or last year’s Cincinnati runner-up Karolina Muchova for a spot in her second straight WTA 1000 quarterfinal.

No.5 seed Jasmine Paolini and Mirra Andreeva will feature in the Round of 16, in a rematch of their Roland Garros semifinal. Paolini defeated Anastasia Potapova 7-6(2), 6-3, while Andreeva moved past 2016 champion Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 6-3.