Gauff Starts Olympic Gold Medal Charge With Impressive Victory

Coco Gauff played her first singles match at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and she won against a very tricky opponent, Ajla Tomljanovic.

The American's return to Paris has gone very well so far. She was picked as one of the players to watch in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles in terms of possibly winning medals for her country.

She lost to Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros earlier this year but won the doubles event, so she's certainly a player to watch in these upcoming days. The 20-year-old started well in the doubles, winning her match with Jessica Pegula easily, but she also added an easy win in the singles.

it was her first singles match at this year's Olympics, and not an easy opponent in Tomljanovic because the Australian is a skillful player who can play solid tennis on clay.

She gave Gauff some problems in this meeting as the American took an early lead, but she also lost that break immediately. It was a battle, but throughout the opening set, the American could still outplay Tomljanovic, winning that first set 6-3.

Neither was hitting that well because both had twice as many unforced errors as winners, but the 2023 US Open winner had more control in her game. Her mistakes came at less crucial moments, and that's why she won the opening set.

She also served a little bit better, at least in a timely manner, which certainly helped keep her serve. The second set started really well for Gauff because she was able to break early, which set the tone for the rest of the set.

It was important to hammer down that no comeback was happening, sending a clear message to her opponent. Taking a double break lead a bit later on certainly added to that.

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Gauff didn't change anything in her game in the second set, but Tomljanovic increased her aggressiveness. She really wanted to be the one to end the points and it didn't work out that well as she was spraying too many errors.

The second seed covers the court really well, so it's very hard to hit through her. Both struggled with the serve in the second set, but it didn't really hurt the American too much. She was still in total control after taking a 4-0 lead in the second set.

The American won the match strongly with a bagel, demonstrating her strong candidacy to win this event possibly. Leading up to the Olympics, she admitted that she wanted a gold medal badly, and this match certainly featured a very determined Gauff who wasn't going to let up at any moment.

If she keeps playing like this, she can certainly hope for a medal, even though her stat line didn't look too impressive. She had only 5 winners and 16 unforced errors, but it was still good enough for Tomljanovic.

However, she will need to play far cleaner tennis if she hopes to beat the likes of Iga Swiatek. Overall, it was still a great start for the American, who won the match 6-3, 6-0.

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