Coco Gauff raced into the second round of the Australian Open and a clash with Emma Raducanu on Monday with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Katerina Siniakova in the opening match on Rod Laver Arena.
Meanwhile fellow American Jessica Pegula also enjoyed an easy passage, dropping just one game. Gauff, seeded seven, headed into the first Grand Slam of the year on a high after winning her third WTA title at the Auckland Classic earlier this month.
And she wasted no time in stamping her authority on 46th-ranked Siniakova on a cool Melbourne morning, breaking the Czech in the fourth and sixth games to take the opening set 6-1 in 22 minutes.
She had to work much harder in the second set, breaking back immediately after going 4-2 down and then again for a 5-4 lead. She secured the match in an hour and 15 minutes on her seventh match point after a final game that lasted more than 10 minutes.
It sets up a mouth-watering second-round clash against the 2021 US Open champion from Britain, Raducanu, who eased past Tamara Korpatch of Germany 6-3, 6-2.
“I’m honoured that the tournament decided to choose me and Katerina to open on Rod Laver Arena,” said Gauff, who would be the youngest Australian Open champion since a 16-year-old Martina Hingis in 1997 if she lifts the winner’s Daphne Akhurst Cup,
Next door on Margaret Court Arena, world number three Pegula was more ruthless and did not drop a game to the 161st-ranked Romanian Jaqueline Cristian in a 29-minute first set.
She had it slightly tougher in the second, having to save three break points in her opening service game before serving an ace on match point to overwhelm her 24-year-old opponent 6-0, 6-1 in just 59 minutes.
Pegula will play either Czech qualifier Brenda Fruhvirtova or Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in the second round.