New York. US tennis player Coco Gauff, the defending champion, and Spaniard Paula Badosa easily navigated their debuts at the US Open, the final Grand Slam of the year, on Monday.
Gauff, who returned to New York with doubts after several recent major disappointments, displayed a high level on the centre court of Flushing Meadows to defeat the French Varvara Gracheva.
The 20-year-old American tennis star eventually beat Gracheva (66th) by a resounding 6-2, 6-0 in 66 minutes of play.
After overcoming her rival’s initial resistance, Gauff led the match without opposition with a total of 10 aces and eight break points saved.
“I’m happy to be back here and play like this,” said the world number three to the applause of her fans.
In the second round, Gauff will face German Tatjana Maria, who beat Argentine Solana Sierra 6-2, 6-3 on Monday.
A year ago, New York witnessed Gauff’s consecration as a figure of women’s tennis, but since then the player from Delray Beach (Florida) has not been able to reach any of the three major tournament finals this year.
In recent weeks her confidence seemed to be waning with early eliminations at the Paris Olympics and the WTA 1000 tournaments in Canada and Cincinnati, where she did not make it past the round of 16.
“The last few weeks have been tough,” she admitted. “This is the best tennis I’ve played in a while.”
Spaniard Paula Badosa, on the other hand, is enjoying a career revival that she confirmed on Monday by defeating Swiss Viktorija Golubic 6-0 and 6-3 in 69 minutes.
Badosa has been showing great improvement following the back problems she suffered after reaching number two in the world in 2022.
This month, the Catalan player won the WTA 500 tournament in Washington and was a semi-finalist in Cincinnati, climbing more than 100 places in the rankings since May to her current 29th position.
Badosa, who missed last year’s US Open due to injury, will next face either American Taylor Townsend or Italian Martina Trevisan.
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– 2024-08-27 17:28:10
