World No. 3 Coco Gauff of the United States made the BNP Paribas Open Round of 16 for the third straight year with a 7-6(1), 6-2 win over No. 29 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece on Monday.

Gauff took 1 hour and 35 minutes to overcome one of the strongest Indian Wells players of recent years. Sakkari is a two-time finalist at the BNP Paribas Open, including last year, where she beat Gauff in the semifinals.

Indian Wells: Draws | Scores | Order of play

Former US Open champion Gauff, who turns 21 years old later this week, will meet either No. 13 seed Diana Shnaider or resurgent new mom Belinda Bencic in the Round of 16.

Gauff is 2-1 against former World No. 4 Bencic, including a win at this year's Australian Open. However, Gauff lost her only prior meeting with her fellow 20-year-old Shnaider, which came at WTA 1000 Toronto last year.

This result marked a much-needed win over a quality challenger for Gauff, who is still seeking her first singles semifinal of the year.

After starting the year 9-0 (including leading the United States to the United Cup team title and making the Australian Open quarterfinals), Gauff went 0-2 in February's Middle East swing, then barely got past 52nd-ranked Moyuka Uchijima in her Indian Wells opener.

Moreover, Sakkari has been one of Gauff's most challenging opponents on tour. Despite the victory for Gauff this time around, Sakkari has still won six of their 10 career meetings, including in the semifinals here last year.

But Gauff steeled herself during the tail end of a close first set on Monday, eventually dominating the tiebreak to grit out the pivotal one-set advantage.

Sakkari stayed in the mix the whole way through, forcing Gauff into an extremely nervy final game where the American had to save four break points and needed six match points to seal the deal.