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Gauff dominates Fernandez at Austalian Open but Osaka retires injured

World number three Coco Gauff beats Leylah Fernandez in straight sets to reach third round at Australia Open.

Coco Gauff has extended her unblemished start to the season with a straight-sets win over Leylah Fernandez on Friday to roll into the second week of the Australian Open.

The American world number three, one of the favourites for the Melbourne title, eased to a 6-4, 6-2 third-round win on Rod Laver Arena against the 30th seed from Canada.

Gauff is yet to drop a set this season in eight matches having won all five of her singles at the season-opening United Cup, including a 6-3, 6-2 win over Fernandez which was the pair’s only previous clash.

READ MORE:Coco Gauff vs Leylah Annie Fernandez Prediction & Picks..

“I think it was harder because she knew what to expect, and I definitely think she played a little bit different today than at the United Cup,” said Gauff, who is on an overall 12-match winning streak.

“Leylah is a great competitor, great player, great person so I knew today was going to be a tough match regardless of the result a couple of weeks ago.”

Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open semifinal last year, her best Melbourne Park performance to date.

She is drawn to meet the world number one and double defending champion at the same stage this year.

Before that the 20-year-old will face Belinda Bencic, who advanced when Naomi Osaka retired injured, for a place in the quarterfinals.

Coco Gauff

World number 29 Fernandez, the losing finalist in the 2021 US Open, was in the third round in Melbourne for the first time and found the precision of Gauff hard to handle.

The American stepped on the gas midway through the first set, breaking Fernandez to love.

A double break at the start of the second put Gauff in control, but serving at 3-0 she coughed up a pair of double faults to allow Fernandez a break back and a lifeline.

If Fernandez sensed a door opening, then Gauff immediately slammed it shut, breaking again for 4-1.

Serving for the match at 5-2, Gauff unleashed two searing backhand winners – one down the line and one across court – and sealed victory with an unreturnable lob in 1hr 16min

Bencic in Gauff’s sights after Osaka retires

Gauff will now face the Swiss Bencic, who advanced to the last 16 after two-time champion Naomi Osaka retired during Friday’s third-round match.

Bencic took the first set in a tiebreak 7-6(3) before Japan’s Osaka, who had also pulled out of the Auckland final earlier this month due to the same abdominal injury, withdrew from the contest.

Osaka had said the result from an MRI scan before the tournament “wasn’t fantastic” but came through two rounds, beating Caroline Garcia and Karolina Muchova in three-set matches.

But the clash against Bencic, ranked 294 in the world at the start of the Open, proved to be a step too far for the 27-year-old who said her withdrawal seemed ‘inevitable’ after the strain she put on her abdomen in the earlier rounds.

“It’s not fantastic and I’m feeling not great, not bad. In the middle somewhere,” Osaka told reporters.

“It was a little hectic trying to manage it (during the tournament) because obviously my draw was quite tough. But we were also doing everything we could. I was going to therapy every day and into the night. So the days have been very long for me. Obviously after my last match it got way worse.”

Bencic broke early to go 1-0 up but Osaka showed promise and quickly found her range to keep the Swiss at bay with an effective first serve and deep groundstrokes while she also held her nerve on a crucial hold to lead 5-2.

But Osaka, who won the title at Melbourne Park in 2019 and 2021, was visibly struggling and she lost her composure when she failed to serve out the set as Bencic grew in confidence with two searing returns.

Osaka then called for a physiotherapist during a changeover and although she initially soldiered on after treatment, she could not continue after the tiebreak.

“I really feel for Naomi, I saw her struggling a little bit at the end of the set and obviously it’s not the way you would like this match to end,” Bencic said.

“I thought it was a good match, so hopefully she’ll be fine soon and she can play well

for the rest of the season.”

United Cup Day 3 Predictions Including Coco Gauff vs Leylah Fernandez

Team USA usually brings one of the strongest line-ups to this competition and this year is no exception. The first nation trying to stop them will be Canada with its own young stars. As always, we here at LWOT will be predicting every match on day three, including Karolina Muchova vs Malene Helgo and Alexander Zverev vs Thiago Monteiro, but who will come out on top in the second match of Group A?

Somewhat surprisingly, this pair haven’t played each other yet, or at least not in the pros as they did square off in an important match at the junior level in the semifinals at Roland Garros. A part of why the American team looks so strong here is the confidence that Coco Gauff must have got from winning the WTA Finals. She was almost unstoppable in the early days of her partnership with Matt Daly and now that she’s coming off a longer training block, can we expect even more? Probabl

Head-to-head: Fritz 2-0 Auger-Aliassime

Taylor Fritz finished runner-up in two massive events near the end of 2024 (ATP Finals and the US Open) and while he’s still quite distantly far away from the level of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, he’s quickly emerging as a sort of “best of the rest” figure. He should be an asset for the American team here and is the favorite to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime. The Canadian isn’t as good as he was two years ago (when he still lost to Fritz twice) and ended the last season injured. Might take him a while to regroup.

Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz played together at the Paris Olympics and ended up losing to Felix Auger-Aliassime (with Gabriela Dabrowski). While the Americans can also use Desirae Krawczyk, they’re most likely to rely on Gauff who’s been one of the best doubles players in the world besides all her singles success. She and Fritz seem really high on confidence at the moment after going deep in their respective year-end championships. That’s something Auger-Aliassime lacks, especially after losing to Borna Coric despite winning the first set of their match without losing a game.

READ MORE:Coco Gauff ‘has absolutely put her hands up to be one of the favourites..

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Coco Gauff

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