Coco Gauff has survived her first serious test of the summer to safely progress to the Australian Open quarter-finals in Melbourne.
The third seed had to dig deep to resist a spirited challenge from resurgent former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in a high-quality, two-hour, 27-minute slugest on Rod Laver Arena.
Gauff let out a huge roar of relief after finally prevailing 5-7 6-2 6-1 on Sunday after Bencic defied the odds and intense heat to threaten a huge upset in just her 19th match back after having more than a year out of tennis to start a family.
Despite her long absence, Bencic, a one-time world No.8, played lights-out tennis to take the opening set to have the American under immense pressure.
Gauff, who won last year's season-ending championship and opened 2025 in the same hot form to lead Team USA to the United Cup title, had dropped only one set in her 12-match winning streak.
Ranked 297th while still only 11 weeks into her comeback after having daughter Bella last April, Bencic refused to go away.
But the 20-year-old Gauff starting turning the screws after gaining a decisive service break in the second set.
"In the first set she played great tennis and it was tough for me to be on the offence," Gauff said.
"I just played more aggressively in the second set and then also the third set but, overall, I'm happy with how I played.
"I mean, the first set could easily have went my way for a few more points, but that's tennis so I just did my best to reset."
In winning her first nine matches of the year for a third time, Gauff joined all-time greats Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Serena Williams and Margaret Court to achieve the feat.
"I saw something about that on Instagram but, yeah, it's pretty crazy," said the 2023 US Open winner.
"To be amongst the same stat line as legends, I'm very grateful, but we worked hard in the off-season and obviously there's still a lot to go for me to accomplish my goal (of winning the Open)."
Gauff next plays American 11th seed Paula Badosa on Tuesday for a semi-final berth for a second straight year at Melbourne Park.
She might be playing with somewhat of a heavy heart after mourning the loss of the social media app TikTok back home in the US.
Gauff made her feelings known in a message penned on a camera lens before leaving Rod Laver Arena on Sunday.
