battles

Coco Gauff showed all of her battling qualities as she fought through a back injury to beat Marta Kostyuk and keep her WTA Finals last-four hopes alive.

American Gauff was visibly in pain as she received treatment on her lower back midway through a match she needed to win to stay in the tournament.

She found herself 5-1 down in the second set – only to win six games in a row to complete a 6-4 7-5 win at Indian Wells.

“Physically, I wasn’t at my best, which I’m not really used to,” Gauff told Sky Sports.

“It was like a mental challenge, learning how to play through that.”

The long tennis season has taken a toll on a number of players, with Ukraine’s Kostyuk also receiving treatment on a wrist injury that has been hampering her since August.

It is the second time that Gauff has overturned a 5-1 deficit at this tournament, having done the same to beat Jessica Pegula on Sunday.

However, the 22-year-old admitted she was not expecting it to happen again, and was already preparing herself for a third set.

“I asked my physio at 5-2 down, what can I do on the bathroom break [between sets] to try and loosen up,” Gauff said.

“And then there was no bathroom break!”

Gauff will need Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova to beat Pegula in the final group match if she is to reach the semi-finals.

Gauff struggled with her serve throughout, producing nine double faults to one ace, but said afterwards she struggled to get through her motion without feeling pain.

Kostyuk – a late call-up to the season-ending finals after Elena Rybakina’s withdrawal – also struggled to generate pace and spin because of her wrist problem.

World number four Gauff came back from an early break down to take the first set, but immediately ran into problems in the second.

She called for the trainer after going 3-0 down but soon trailed by a double break, with Kostyuk saving three break points inbetween.

However, with her movement hampered and the crowd behind her, Gauff was able to swing hard and ultimately outlast Kostyuk.

The Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) exchanged artillery and missile fire from their positions in Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri, while a UN official warned that famine is threatening the country.

Army forces bombed RSF sites in the Riyadh neighbourhood and Sports City, south of Khartoum.

From their positions east of Khartoum, the RSF launched artillery shelling, targeting army camps in the capital and the General Command.

This comes as the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), led by Abdel Aziz Al-Hilu, resumed its bombing of the city of Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan State, after having ceased for weeks.

SPLM bombed the city with artillery and Katyusha rockets from the east and north.

In South Darfur state, about 80 people were killed over the last three days in the tribal conflict between the Beni Halba and Salamat tribes near the city of Buram. The conflict between the two tribes has broken out several times and led to the death and injury of dozens.

A UN official has warned that the ongoing conflict could mean more than six million people face the threat of famine.

The deputy head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHOA) in Sudan said that the general situation in the country is catastrophic.

READ: Sudan medics warn that cholera and dengue fever are spreading

Sudanese medical sources reported that 18 people died and 265 were infected with cholera in the state of Gedaref, bordering Ethiopia, while medics warned of an outbreak of cholera and dengue fever across the country with the start of seasonal rains and the effects of the war on the health system there.

The Sudanese Medical Association reported that 3,398 cases of dengue fever were recorded in the states of Gedaref, Red Sea, North Kordofan and Khartoum from mid-April to mid-September.

The war has forced more than 4.2 million people to flee their homes and about 1.2 million to cross into neighbouring countries.