Venus out as Gauff wins again

Coco Gauff defeated Venus Williams again in the first round of the Australian Open.

The 15-year-old’s success in the first round at Wimbledon last summer catapulted her to global stardom.

With Gauff now a top 100 player – and 39-year-old Venus having been a doubt for the tournament with a hip injury

– it was far less of a surprise to see the teenager come through 7-6 (5) 6-3 under the roof on Margaret Court Arena.

The American’s achievements should certainly not be taken for granted, though, and she showed maturity well beyond her years to battle through after nerves kicked in during the first set.

Elsewhere, Serena Williams began her campaign in emphatic fashion with a 6-0 6-3 victory over 18-yearold Russian Anastasia Potapova.

The 38-year-old is making her latest bid to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 grand slam singles titles having lost in four finals since returning to the tour nearly two years ago after the birth of daughter Olympia.

Australia’s great hope, top seed Ashleigh Barty, gave her fans a scare by losing the first set to Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko but rectified the situation quickly to win 5-7 6-1 6-1.

Defending champion Naomi Osaka trailed Czech Marie Bouzkova 4-2 in the second set but reeled off the next four games to win 6-2 6-4.

Petra Kvitova took just 50 minutes to swat aside fellow Czech Katerina Siniakova 6-1 6-0 while Caroline Wozniacki began her final tournament with a 6-1 6-3 victory over American Kristie Ahn.