Fourth seed Coco Gauff made a slightly wobbly start to her Australian Open campaign on Monday before the American found her rhythm to defeat Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-3 6-0 and reach the second round. Gauff, the newest member of the Grand Slam champions club after her U.S. Open success last September, traded breaks freely with Schmiedlova after her opening service game and came up with a late hold to wrap up the first set.

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The 19-year-old stepped up a gear in the next set as Schmiedlova continued to struggle on serve and raced ahead 3-0 with a superb cross-court winner from the deep to draw loud cheers from fans on Rod Laver Arena.

Gauff was barely troubled from there as she served out the match, finishing it off with a neat backhand winner to set up a meeting with fellow American Caroline Dolehide in the next round.

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Seventh seed Marketa Vondrousova ousted

Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova crashed to a stunning defeat in the opening round of the Australian Open on Monday as Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska outclassed her 6-1 6-2. Seventh seed Vondrousova, who arrived in Melbourne after a hip issue forced her to withdraw from the warm-up tournament in Adelaide, quickly found herself 5-0 down in the opening set as Yastremska sensed an opportunity for a big upset.

The 24-year-old Czech, who became the first unseeded woman to claim the All England title last year, got on the scoreboard late in the first set but the powerful Yastremska had built up far too much momentum and wrapped it up in style.

Yastremska, the world number 93 who reached the third round at Melbourne Park in 2019, secured the early break in the second set as her opponent continued to spray the errors and the 23-year-old held firm to seal the victory.

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