Coco Gauff battles illness and vomiting to survive Madrid Open thriller

The world No. 3 rallied from a set down to beat the 25th seed 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 on Manolo Santana Stadium at the WTA 1000 event.

Cirstea raised concerns about Gauff's coaching team during the opening set, complaining to chair umpire Kader Nouni: "Her coach is screaming from that end, 'Come on, aggressive, let's go, do this all game long, come on, forehand, backhand, first serve'."

"This is coaching! Because I'm there and they are bothering me, because they are screaming in my ear."

The umpire responded: "I do not hear any coaching."

Gauff's physical struggles became clear in the second set when she vomited and required a medical check for her blood pressure. Despite trailing by a break on three occasions, she fought back to force a deciding set, which she won comfortably.

In her on-court interview, Gauff was asked how she managed to come through the match.

"Yeah, I don't know. Honestly, I was just trying to finish the match and one point turned into another," she said.

"I think I got what everybody else is having here in Madrid, unfortunately. Just gotta try to push through for tomorrow.

"Honestly, I was trying not to throw up on the court. It was a weird, weird feeling today. I don't know how I got through it.

"I just pulled out in Indian Wells, I'm not someone who likes to pull out, so I didn't want to pull out again today. I'm glad I was able to get through it."

Speaking to Sky Sports, she added: "I tried to keep my food down, but once I threw up I was able to throw up again and then I felt a bit better.

"It was a tough match. I think I got the Madrid virus, stomach virus, that's going around and I'm usually someone who doesn't get sick."

Gauff will face world No. 13 Linda Noskova in the fourth round after the Czech advanced via walkover when Liudmila Samsonova withdrew due to illness.

Madrid has been hit by a wave of sickness, with Madison Keys and Marin Cilic also withdrawing, while Iga Swiatek retired during her third-round match with a virus.

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