Coco Gauff beat 68th-ranked Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-0 in her first Grand Slam match after becoming a Grand Slam winner. She went on to win the match and move on to the second round of the Australian Open.
Gauff got 54 out of the possible 75 points. Schmiedlova’s serve was broken seven times, and she never had a game point while serving.
Gauff, the No. 4 seed, plays Caroline Dolehide, the 42nd ranked player from her home country. Dolehide won the U.S. Open in September when she was 19 years old.
AUSTRALIAN OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men
Gauff won a tune-up event in New Zealand last week to start the year. She could become the youngest American and the youngest player from the United States to win multiple Grand Slams since Tracy Austin in 1981.
Gauff said last week that going into a Slam after having already won one didn’t make a difference.
She said of her U.S. Open win, “It’s in the past.” “The only thing I’ll remember about that Slam is how I won.” I didn’t play my best tennis. It was more the fire in my mind. I had a few tough matches.”
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Gauff has been working on shortening her serve move with Andy Roddick, who is one of the best servers of all time, since the U.S. Open. Gauff’s teacher, Brad Gilbert, also helped Roddick win the U.S. Open in 2003.
Gauff has also been open about having big goals, like being one of the busiest players at the Olympics in Paris. When it comes to Slams?
“Double-digits would be pretty awesome,” she stated. “That’s a big goal. I don’t know if it will come true.” I believe that setting high goals helps me go beyond what I believe I can do.
On the same day, Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine beat Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-2.
The Czech Vondrousova pulled out of a tune-up event last week because she hurt her right hip. Before this, Yastremska had lost all seven of her first-round matches at Slams.
The Australian Open keeps going overnight, with No. 16 Caroline Garcia of France playing Naomi Osaka in her first Slam match since giving birth.
Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz both have first-round matches on Tuesday.
