![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Gauff-BH-AntoineCouvercelle-ROLEX.jpg\")
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Photo credit: Antoine Couvercelle\/ROLEX<\/p>\n
Record-setting attendance has marked the first four days of this Australian Open.<\/p>\n
Today, Coco Gauff turned Margaret Court Arena into a proving ground\u2014and squeezed Olga Danilovic out of safe space.<\/p>\n
The third-seeded Gauff jetted out to 5-0 first-set lead and 3-0 second-set lead, landing into round three with a 6-2, 6-2 sweep of a sloppy Danilovic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI missed a backhand to go up 5-0 but other than that\u2014it was perfect,\u201d Gauff told Christopher Eubanks. \u201cI saw Carlos yesterday and I\u2019m trying to drop shot like him\u2026It\u2019s a good shot until I miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing clean combinations, Gauff won 26 of 31 first-serve points and committed just 16 errors\u201418 fewer than Danilovic, who came out sailing her shots beyond the baseline.<\/p>\n
Two-time Grand Slam champion Gauff will play compatriot and good friend Hailey Baptiste in an all-American third round clash.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I\u2019m really excited to play her,\u201d Gauff said of Baptiste. \u201cYeah, last time I played her was a while ago. We have both gotten better since then, so it will be a different matchup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to it, and it won\u2019t be easy, but at the end, I\u2019m just proud of us to both make it at this stage. I don\u2019t even remember the first time I met her. Had to be, like, 10 or 11 years old, so it\u2019s just pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baptiste stopped Aussie qualifier Storm Hunter, 6-2, 6-1, in a confident 63-minute triumph. World No. 70 Baptiste, who beat compatriot Taylor Townsend in her opener, more than tripled Hunter\u2019s winner output\u201424 to 7\u2014as she reached the AO third round for the first time in three appearances.<\/p>\n
Fast starts to both sets propelled Gauff in a convincing win.<\/p>\n
Three of the first four games went to deuce with Gauff winning them all to go up a double break at 4-0.<\/p>\n
Working the ball corner-to-corner, Gauff made Danilovic move.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, the reigning Roland Garros champion stamped a strong hold, spinning a forehand winner to hold at 15. Gauff extended her lead to 5-0 after just 21 minutes of play.<\/p>\n
The left-handed Serbian, who reeled off six games in a row defeating 45-year-old wild card Venus Williams in her three-set opener, began to clean up her act.<\/p>\n
After spraying the ball all over the court for the first five games, Danilovic held in the sixth game.<\/p>\n
Gauff sent a forehand long and slapped her second double fault of the game to surrender serve as Danilovic crept closer at 2-5.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 2024 AO semifinalist was imposing her advantage in running rallies. Another Danilovic dilemma: her lefty crosscourt forehand feeds into Gauff\u2019s strongest shot, the backhand. Leaning into her two-hander Gauff lashed a winner for a second set point.<\/p>\n
When Danilovic double faulted, Gauff snatched the 37-minute opening set.<\/p>\n
Afterward, Gauff said she\u2019s striving to play aggressive tennis with margin using her spin to displace opponents rather than trying to fire flatter drives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think just continuing to be aggressive [is key],\u201d Gauff said. \u201cI think the way I thought I had to be was just
ultra aggressive, hitting completely flat. I realize that that\u2019s just probably not the game style for me. Like, I still want to be aggressive, but just playing with a bit more spin and kind of playing like how some of the guys do, like taking more space, hitting heavier shots, not necessarily flatter shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with the way my strokes are, I think that just makes more sense for me. I feel like so far this year, I
have been able to execute that. I think it\u2019s just being more comfortable with that playing style and also not being too passive in tight moments, just making sure I accelerate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo credit: Antoine Couvercelle\/ROLEX Record-setting attendance has marked the first four days of this Australian Open. Today, Coco…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[12083,5113,99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-420992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-australian-open","9":"tag-coco-gauff","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}