Coco Gauff battles past Emma Raducanu at Australian Open for 100th WTA win of career

In a first career meeting between two of the brightest young stars in the sport—and on one of the biggest stages in the sport—Coco Gauff battled past Emma Raducanu on Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday night, holding off a late surge from the 2021 US Open champion to win their second-round clash at the Australian Open, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

Gauff was asked afterwards how she prepared for such a blockbuster.

“At a Grand Slam you have to win seven matches, and when you go into the tournament you have to expect to play the best,” she said. “Obviously you hope it’s not in the second round, but what can you do?

“I feel like we handled the pressure pretty well, and kudos to Emma—I know she had a tough week in Auckland, so really good for her to be able to play this level after such a scary moment.”

Raducanu had suffered an ankle injury in Auckland two weeks ago, having to retire from her second-round match at the lead-up event.

The one-hour, 42-minute victory marked a major milestone for the 18-year-old Gauff: it was the 100th WTA win of her career.

She’s the youngest player to record her 100th career WTA win since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009. The Dane was a slightly younger 18 when she reached that milestone in Madrid that year.

It appeared that Gauff was heading for a more comfortable straight-sets victory on Rod Laver Arena as she went up a set and a break, 6-3, 4-2, after just under an hour on court. But Raducanu had other ideas—the 20-year-old former world No. 10 held to close the gap to 4-3, broke back for 4-all and held again for a 5-4 lead in the second set, and even brought up two set points with Gauff serving at 4-5.

But Gauff survived those set points and held for 5-all after an eight-minute game, and after two more holds the two found themselves in a tie-break, where an energized Gauff opened up a 6-2 lead and eventually closed it out on her third match point.

“I just told myself to hang in there. Emma was playing really good tennis towards the end of the match,” the world No. 7 said.

“Honestly, the whole match was great. In the beginning I think we both started off rocky, but I think the match was good quality for the most part. Considering the circumstances—I imagine both of us were nervous, as this was a long-anticipated match-up basically since the draw came out. So I’m glad that it was a good match for you guys.”

Up next for Gauff in the third round will be the winner of the match between No. 29 seed Zheng Qinwen and American Bernarda Pera.