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Australian Open 2024… Coco Gauff, Svitolina win, Marketa Vondrousova out

Coco Gauff

Coco Gauff

Coco Gauff says a pep talk helped her over­come early nerves as she cruised through her first Grand Slam match as a major champi­on at the Australian Open.

The 19-year-old American, who won her maiden major title at the US Open in September, won 6-3 6-0 against Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

“I told myself: ‘I feel good, I look good so just have fun.’ I was able to relax,” said the fourth seed.

Wimbledon champion,Mar­keta Vondrousova, suffered a shock exit on day two.

Vondrousova, ranked seventh in the world, became the highest seed to fall so far in round one, suffering a 6-1 6-2 defeat by Ukrainian qualifier,­Dayana Yastremska.

Afterwards, Yastremska said her grandmother’s house was recently hit by a rocket in the ongoing war in her home country.

The 23-year-old said the re­sistance showed by her country against the Russian invasion is what motivates her on court.

“To talk about what is going on in Ukraine in a couple of seconds is not enough,” she said in her on-court interview.

“I’m proud of Ukraine, proud of the people, the war­riors and the people.

“When I was in Brisbane, be­fore the match I was told a rock­et arrived on my grandmother’s house. It was hard to play.

“We need to remember about the war and give as much sup­port to Ukraine as possible.”

ElinaSvitolina, another Ukrainian who has spoken at length about the impact of the war, is also through.

The 19th seed needed 59 minutes to complete a 6-2 6-2 win over Australian, wildcard Taylah Preston.

Tunisian sixth seed,Ons­Jabeur, took just 67 minutes to beat Ukrainian qualifier,Yuli­aStarodubtsewa, 6-3 6-1.

But Croatian 21st seed, Don­na Vekic, lost 6-4 6-4 to Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Czech 31st seed Marie Bouzko­va suffered an early exit against 19-year-old compatriot Linda Noskova, losing 6-1 7-5.

–BBC

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