American tennis star Coco Gauff was forced to rally Thursday (24 April) during her opening match at the 2025 Madrid Open.

The 21-year-old found herself down and out early, dropping the first set at love, but rebounded for a 0–6, 6–2, 7–5 victory over Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska.

Yastremska was up early in the opening set, rocketing to a 2–0 lead after pushing Gauff to 0–40 in her opening service game. The American saved one break point before Yastremska took the game.

The Ukrainian consolidated her break in the third game, a lengthy battle that went to deuce multiple times.

From there, Gauff once again lost her serve, giving Yastremska the 5–0 lead after another service hold.

Serving to stay in the set and get on the board, Gauff was broken once again. Yastremska took the first set 6–0 in less than half an hour.

Gauff finally got on the board to start the second set, breaking Yastremska in the opening game. But the Ukrainian responded immediately, breaking back to level things at 1–1.

Yastremska held her next service game for a 2–1 lead.

From there, Gauff cruised, winning five games in a row to take the set 6–2, including her final service game, which she won at love.

In the third set, Gauff was quickly up 3–0 but saw that evaporate after Yastremska broke her, held her own serve and then broke again.

The set was level, then, at three games apiece.

Gauff took the lead again, first breaking Yastremska once again and then holding her own serve for 5–3.

The world No. 4 saved two break points as she served to close out the match, but couldn’t manage a third as Yastremska broke again, tying the set, once more, at 5–all.

The back-and-forth affair continued with Gauff taking another break of serve off the Ukrainian, giving the American another chance to close out the match on her racket.

This time, Gauff did it, taking the victory on her fourth match point of the day.