Defending US Open champion Coco Gauff is out of the Cincinnati Open after losing to Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva in three sets on Thursday.

Gauff, also defending champion in Ohio, held a 4-2 lead on her serve in the final set, after losing the first 6-4 and roaring back to claim the second 6-2.

But world No 34 Putintseva, who had saved break points at 1-1 and 2-2 in the third, broke back before breaking again for a 5-4 lead, serving out to take the set 6-4 and continue Gauff’s shaky preparations for defending her title in New York, where the US Open begins on August 26.

It is Gauff’s fifth consecutive defeat to a player inside the top 50 and the 20-year-old will now be seeded No 3 at the US Open, dropping below Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the WTA rankings. As a result, she will no longer guarantee avoiding world No 1 Iga Swiatek until the final, against whom the American has a 1-11 record.

Putintseva, 29, has now beaten the world No 1 and No 2 in the space of six weeks, after knocking Swiatek out of Wimbledon in three sets in July. Gauff, meanwhile, fell to Russia’s Diana Shnaider after losing to Croatia’s Donna Vekic in contentious circumstances at the Olympics, and to compatriot Emma Navarro in a surprise defeat at Wimbledon.

Putintseva will face Paula Badosa in the next round.

GO DEEPER

How does Coco Gauff solve a problem like Iga Swiatek?

(Dylan Buell/Getty Images)