Resolute Gauff avoids Rome exit - but must improve

Coco Gauff reached the Rome final last year, where she lost to Italy's Jasmine Paolini Reigning French Open champion Coco Gauff earned another confidence-boosting win on the clay by fighting back from match point down to beat ailing American teenager Iva Jovic in the Italian Open fourth round. Gauff's preparations for her Roland Garros title defence looked to be taking a significant blow as she trailed 7-5 5-3 against 18-year-old Jovic in Rome. But the world number four, who also recovered from a set down to Argentina's Solana Sierra in the previous round, survived the match point before ending up winning 5-7 7-5 6-2.

Despite victory, Gauff knows she will have to play much better to match her run to the Italian Open final last year - and go anywhere near retaining the French Open, which begins on 24 May. Gauff, who won her second Grand Slam title by beating Aryna Sabalenka in last year's Roland Garros final, was far from her best in a dramatic contest against Jovic - played in a testing wind. The noise of fighter jets in the skies over the Foro Italico venue also disrupted the players.

"I'm just proud - Iva played really good tennis and the conditions weren't the easiest. Everything was going on," said Gauff, who will surely need to raise her level when she faces Russian eight seed Mirra Andreeva in the quarter-finals. "Thanks to my team - their pep talk helped me mentally.

" Swiatek drops just one game to set up Osaka meeting Gauff's main emotion might well have been pride, but her relief at avoiding another early clay-court exit - after losing in the Stuttgart quarter-finals and Madrid last 16 - was also evident. Struggling with her footwork and misfiring with her forehand, Gauff was way short of her best in the opening two sets. But, after Jovic missed match point with a tight forehand into the net, the 17th ranked teenager became further distracted by a cut on her finger caused by an earlier fall on the red dirt.