Wed | May 20, 2026

Gauff advances at Australian Open

Published:Tuesday | January 16, 2024 | 12:09 AM
Coco Gauff of the US plays a forehand return to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia yesterday.
AP
Coco Gauff of the US plays a forehand return to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia yesterday.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP):

American Coco Gauff needed just 60 minutes to advance 6-3, 6-0 over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the opening match on the Rod Laver Arena at the Australia Open Tennis Championship yesterday.

The 19-year-old Gauff, who won her first major at the US Open in September, said she had increased confidence in her serve, thanks to some advice from Andy Roddick.

Fourth-seeded Gauff dropped just one point on her serve in the second set, and credited Roddick, saying “he’s probably one of the best servers in history”.

Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova didn’t make it past the first round, losing 6-1, 6-2 to Dayana Yastremska and struggling with a hip injury.

A third 16-year-old reached the second round, with Mirra Andreeva beating 29-year-old Bernarda Pera 7-5, 6-2 to set up a second-round match with sixth-seeded Ons Jabeur, a three-time runner-up at Grand Slams.

Alina Korneeva and Brenda Fruhvirtova, both also 16, advanced after their first Grand Slam main draw wins on Sunday.

“I’m really excited for this,” Andreeva said about playing Jabeur. “I said many times before that she’s the player that I was looking up to. I really like the way she plays. I’m sure it’s going to be a great match.”

Australia’s newest top-10 player, Alex de Minaur, advanced after past Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic retired from their match. De Minaur was leading 6-7 (6), 6-3, 2-0 when the big-serving Canadian retired with an injury.

Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 and 2022 finalist at Melbourne Park, also advanced when his opponent retired from their match.

Medvedev had dropped the first set but was leading 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 1-0 when the 22-year-old Terence Atmane quit because of cramps.

“When I was feeling tired in the third set, I looked up the other end and saw he was cramping,” Medvedev said. “The conditions were fine but it has not been hot these seven days. And then it was hot today, so you get more stressed.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost last year’s Australian final to Novak Djokovic, advanced with a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 win over Zizou Bergs.

Stan Wawrinka, who won the 2014 Australian title, was beaten 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 by Adrian Mannarino. That left 10-time winner Djokovic as the only Australian champion left in the men’s draw.

Five-time Australian Open finalist Andy Murray lost to Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 and said it might be the last time he contests the season’s first major.

Moments after her Grand Slam comeback ended in a first-round loss, Naomi Osaka walked back through the players’ tunnel where her name has a prominent place among recent Australian Open champions.

Three matches into her return from 15 months off the tour, and six months after the birth of her daughter, Shai, Osaka lost 6-4, 7-6 (2) to 16th-seeded Caroline Garcia in a tight encounter at Rod Laver Arena on Monday night.

Osaka won the US Open in 2018 and 2020, and the Australian title in 2019 and ’21. This was the first time she lost in the first round in Melbourne, where she made her debut in 2016.