Coco Gauff remained undefeated this season after winning her sixth match in a row on Monday, defeating Slovak Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-3, 6-0 to reach the second round at the Australian Open.
The teenaged fourth seed stands a perfect 6-0 after making a winning defence of her 2023 Auckland title this month.
The 19-year-old swept the last eight games of her Melbourne match to advance
“I did well returning and found my serve towards the end,” she said. “She’s a tough player but I’m happy with how I was able to manage my emotions today.”
Gauff was tested as she lost serve three times in the opening set but got all three back and added one of her own to lift the opener and plough untroubled through the second for victory in 61 minutes.
“In the first set I was playing really passive — I mean, I was nervous. But I was able to let go and just play free and put the ball deep.
“In the second set, I was playing much deeper and she made more errors. I think I just freed up and everything started to fall into place.”
The 2024 start for reigning Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova continued to stall as the Czech lost 6-1, 6-2 to Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine.
Vondrousova won a single match at the United Cup and then withdrew before her start in Adelaide; she last lost to a qualifier in 2021.
Two-time quarter-finalist Elina Svitolina, playing now as a mother after a return last season to the Tour, earned her second-round spot 6-2, 6-2 over teenaged Australian wild card Taylah Preston.
Svitolina and husband Gael Monfils are travelling long haul with 16-month-old daughter Skai for the first time.
“I’m just happy with the way I started> It was not easy at the beginning of the match, but then I played quite solid,” Svitolina said.
Main photo:- Auckland 2024 winner Coco Gauff took her winning run to six matches in AO first round by International Sports Fotos Ltd
