Slow-starting Gauff ramps up her Open preparations
Coco Gauff stepped up preparations for the Australian Open with an emphatic 6-3 6-0 win over rising Czech Brenda Fruhvirtova at the Auckland Classic on Thursday to march into the quarter-finals.
After a few issues at the start in which US Open champion Gauff dropped her first service game and had to save two break points on her third, the 19-year-old proved unstoppable in the battle of the teens.
The 16-year-old qualifier Fruhvirtova, who beat world No.48 Anna Blinkova in the first round, won only 10 points in the second set of a match that was over in 70 minutes.
“She started off playing very well and I was able to raise my level. I thought I served well and I did better on the returns,” said Gauff, who sent down five aces. The American will next play eighth seed Varvara Gracheva, the world No.42.
On the other side of the draw, seventh seed Petra Martic of Croatia beat China’s Yue Yuan 6-2 6-2 and will play the winner of the match between No.2 seed Elina Svitolina and Emma Raducanu.
Former US Open champion Raducanu has slipped to 301 in the world after being sidelined by injury for the past eight months.
The Australian Open starts on January 14.
Meanwhile, grand slam semi-finalist Karen Khachanov slumped to a three-set defeat in his first singles match of the season at the Hong Kong Open.
Second seed and world No.15 Khachanov, who reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open a year ago, was rocked in his build-up for this year’s first grand slam of the year by a second-round 7-6 (7/2) 2-6 6-2 loss to Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori.
Russia’s Khachanov, who had a bye into the second round, struggled for consistency and only found his range when he rattled off four games in a row to take the second set.
But Ruusuvuori, who came from a set down to beat France’s Benjamin Bonzi in the first round, regrouped and was always in control in the decider as he broke twice to run out the winner in 2hr 23min.
“It was a very difficult match against a great opponent,” said the Finnish world No.69, who will face either Lorenzo Musetti of Italy or Russia’s Pavel Kotov on Friday for a place in the semi-finals.
“I’ve lost a couple of times against him and he’s always a very difficult guy to beat.”
Third seed Frances Tiafoe had no such problems as he enjoyed a comfortable win against Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3 7-6 (7/4).