Coco Gauff didn’t just overcome Sorana Cirstea in the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Sunday. The defending Roland Garros champion also fought through an illness that saw her get sick on the court.
Looking sluggish in her second match against Cirstea in less than a month—Gauff also beat her in three sets in the third round at the Miami Open—Gauff trailed Cirstea at one stage by a set and a break. At 4-4 in set two, after breaking Cirstea’s serve, Gauff sprinted to the side of the court to get sick, and also received a medical timeout where a tournament doctor checked her vitals.
From there, she won nine of the last 11 games for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory.
“I was just trying to finish the match, and have one point turn into another,” Gauff later said in her on-court interview after the two hour, 21-minute match. “I’m just going to try to push through … It was a weird feeling today. I don’t know how I got through it.”
