Coco Gauff Starts Australian Open Campaign By Beating Sofia Kenin
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Coco Gauff's quest for a maiden Australian Open title began with a solid victory against the former champion Sofia Kenin.
Pre-tournament expectations of Gauff were high after she started 2025 by helping Team USA win the United Cup. Her efforts at the tournament included beating Iga Swiatek for the second consecutive time.
Gauff also defeated Swiatek during her excellent results at the end of 2024. The 20-year-old won the China Open and WTA Finals under new coach Matt Daly, who joined her team after the US Open to replace Brad Gilbert.
Those results in the last few months have made some believe Gauff will win the Australian Open. That includes the tournament director Craig Tiley, who outlined how her improvements in the last few months convinced him that 2025 is her year.
However, former Australian Open champion Kenin was a tough opening-round draw for Gauff. The No. 3 seed lost to Kenin during her compatriot's run to the title in Melbourne in 2020 and again at the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
Kenin endured a challenging 2024 season, but Gauff knows as well as anyone how good her game is when it clicks. That was demonstrated during a closely fought start to the match on the Rod Laver Arena.
Gauff won the opening two games, but both games went to deuce and Kenin was winning her share of the rallies. The lower-ranked American then took advantage of Gauff struggling to serve at the end with the sun in her eyes to break and get on the scoreboard.
Kenin backed up the break to level the set at 2-2. A crucial moment came in the sixth game. Kenin saved two break points from 15-40, but Gauff still managed to break to go 4-2 up.
That gave Gauff the cushion she needed to close out the set. The WTA Finals champion won her next two service games without any issues to take it 6-3 and leave the 2020 Australian Open winner with a mountain to climb.
Both women held serve comfortably to start the set despite Gauff struggling with the familiar problem of leaking double faults. Last season, the former US Open champion hit more double faults than any other player.
Gauff unleashed on Kenin's second serve in the third game to break to love. That was followed by some wild unforced errors in the next game from Kenin, who seemed to have the wind knocked out of her sails after being broken so swiftly.
To Kenin's credit, she kept fighting and battled back from 15-30 in her next service game to hold for 2-3 down and keep alive her slim hopes of staging a dramatic comeback on the Australian Open's biggest court.
The 26-year-old then saved a break point at 2-4 to hold once again and keep the score close. A huge moment arrived in Gauff's next service game. Kenin missed a break point chance at 30-40 after missing a forehand by a matter of inches and Gauff held for 5-3 with a backhand winner.
That proved to be Kenin's final chance. Gauff broke her once again to seal a 6-3, 6-3 triumph. It was not a perfect performance from the 20-year-old, but it was still good enough to progress relatively comfortably.
