Coco Gauff will face a familiar rival in Belinda Bencic after a thrilling three-set win over compatriot Claire Liu in the third round at Wimbledon.

Gauff has not had it all her own way at the All England Club so far this year, but after a second-set scare, she prevailed 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 in two and a half hours.

The seventh seed made a strong start with a break in the first game and remained strong on serve throughout the first set.

She bookended it with another break of serve, eventually getting the better of Liu on her third set point.

It was a much tighter second set, with Liu going a break up in the opening game before Gauff immediately cancelled it out.

Another break put Gauff on the brink of winning the match, but at 5-4 she failed to convert three match points, with Liu then edging the breaker.

The 22-year-old put any potential nerves behind her quickly, though, opening the decider with yet another break, and she did not look back from there, rounding out the match with a three-game winning streak.

And she will face Bencic in the last 16 after she earned a 6-4 4-6 7-6 (10-6) victory over Anna Kalinskaya.

Gauff not afraid to go the distance

Gauff has 13 wins in three sets in WTA main draws in 2026, the most of any player this season. And she is now 23-7 in three-set matches at grand slams in her career – the third-best winning percentage in the Open Era.

She also likes facing off against fellow Americans; she is now 5-0 against her compatriots on the WTA Tour this year. 

As for Bencic, she now owns 22 main-draw wins at Wimbledon, which is the joint-most in her career at a single tournament (level with the US Open).

Gauff has beaten Bencic in five of their previous seven meetings, though this will be the first to take place on grass. Five of their head-to-head matches to date have gone to three sets.