COCO REACHES FOR THE STARS AS SUN SETS ON VENUS
IT was a ‘hello world’ moment when Coco Gauff defeated Venus Williams in the first round on Wimbledon’s Court No1 last summer. Their meeting at the same stage of the Australian Open had more the feeling of a goodbye, there being a contrasting lack of surprise at the 15-year-old overcoming someone nearly 24 years her senior. The older Williams sibling is a reduced figure these days, ranked 55 in the world, and although she put up some stiff resistance in the first set, could not prevent herself going down to a 7-6, 6-3 defeat.
The 39-year-old was vague on what makes Gauff an outstanding prospect but there was little arguing with her overall analysis. ‘She clearly wants it, works very hard, is extremely mature for her age,’ said Williams. ‘The sky’s the limit for her.’
Whether we will see the fivetimes Wimbledon champion in Australia again cannot be certain, although there appears little doubt that she will return to London at least one more time.
She turns 40 just before this year’s event but confirmed that she would like to be at the Olympics in Tokyo. ‘In a perfect world I would play every time, I love it,’ she said. Unfortunately for her there are a lot of Americans ahead of her in the pecking order, although the authorities are ingenious when trying to get the biggest names in the field.
There is a world weariness about Williams when she talks in public, unlike Gauff, for whom everything remains fresh. The honeymoon seems far from over.
‘Everyone thinks I’m so serious because of my on-court demeanour,’ she said. ‘Really I’m not. I don’t really take life too seriously. I like to have fun.’
At a ranking already of 67, Gauff is still improving and felt she served better than when they met at Wimbledon.
She now plays the experienced Romanian Sorana Cirstea and the steely side of her nature will have to be to the fore.
‘If I go into a tournament thinking I’ll lose, then I’m going to lose,’ she said. ‘I respect my opponent but if I’m going to go against them, I can’t say, “Oh, I’m going to lose”. That’s not the right mentality to have. I believe I can beat anyone.’
This was, in contrast to Wimbledon, hardly a shock result. Since her Indian summer of 2017, when she made two Grand Slam finals, Williams has struggled and won only one match in her last four majors. There were no such problems for her sister Serena, who dropped just three games against Anastasia Potapova.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic completed day one with a 7-6 (5) 6-2 2-6 6-1 victory over German Jan-Lennard Struff.
It is the first time Djokovic, who is bidding to lift the trophy at Melbourne Park for the eighth time, has dropped a set in the first round since 2006.
But he recovered from that in impressive fashion to book his spot in the second round.
‘I thought I started off well, I was a break up in the first set, he came back,’ said Djokovic. ‘Second set I played really well then he turned it around. Credit to him for fighting, he’s a very powerful player.’
Roger Federer remains cautious about his Melbourne hopes despite a convincing first-round win over Steve Johnson.
The 20-time grand slam champion had not played a competitive match since the ATP Finals in November and spoke ahead of the tournament about his concerns that he might be rusty.
There was little evidence of that as he breezed past American Johnson under the Rod Laver Arena roof, winning 6-3 6-2 6-2 in just an hour and 21 minutes.
Federer struck the ball very well but feels the real test of his form will come when he is put under pressure.