By Shrivathsa Sridhar
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – 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.
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.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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