Coco Gauff moved through to the third round with a win over Rebecca Marino in a match where neither player could keep a hold of their serve at the Miami Open.
The young American reached the quarter-final in part one of the sunshine double in Indian Wells last week and remained on course to do the same as she overcame some struggles on her serve to win 6-4, 6-3 in one hour 12 minutes. Fans inside the Hard Rock Arena were treated to back-to-back US vs Canada clashes after Jessica Pegula had earlier taken out Katherine Sebov on the show court.
And Gauff gave the home fans some early hope of two out of two over their northern neighbours when she broke the Marino serve early and consolidated to lead 4-1. But back came the 32-year-old from Toronto as she broke back and levelled at 4-4. Neither player was taking any control of the match at this stage but the 19-year-old from nearby Delray Beach took the initiative to break at 5-4 up to claim set one.
The second set was littered with break of serve, with the returning player able to step in and dictate the rallies. The players reached 3-3 with five of the six games featuring a break point and four of those five games being service breaks. It was a scrappy contest but again it was Gauff who looked like she had found some rhythm as she held to lead 4-3.
That was followed by a break of the Marino serve in the next game - her third in succession - to give Gauff a 5-3 with the match on her racket. But in a game dominated by the player receiving, it was never going to be a simple case of just serving it out and, Marino did have a chance to prolong the match when she carved out a break point.
But the 19-year-old found some big serves just when it mattered and wrapped up the match to set up a tie with Anastasia Potapova at her hometown Masters1000 event.
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