By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, January 16, 2023
World No. 3 Jessica Pegula rolled through nine straight games in a 6-0, 6-1 sweep of Jaqueline Cristian and Coco Gauff topped Katerina Siniakova 6-1, 6-4 at the AO.
Photo credit: Cameron Spencer/Getty
Playing on adjacent arenas, doubles partners Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff were in strong sync in Melbourne Park today.
The American seeds made Australian Open statement starts.
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Roaring through nine straight games to open, Pegula powered past Jaqueline Cristian 6-0, 6-1 in a 59-minute dismissal on Margaret Court Arena.
"It was obviously an ideal situation. Always feels good when you win a match like that," Pegula told the media in Melbourne. "I think when those days come you just kind of take it and don't complain and don't critique. You kind of just move on to the next one.
"Definitely first matches are always really tough, especially at a slam, there's so much hype and anxious nerves leading up. So I'm glad it just went very smooth."
Opening action on Rod Laver Arena, Gauff won the final four games dispatching world No. 1 doubles player Katerina Siniakova 6-1, 6-4.
While the top two American women's seeds rolled, 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins was pushed to the limit and prevailed.
The feisty Collins broke in the final game edging 59th-ranked Anna Kalinskaya 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 in a sweaty three-hour, three-minute slugfest on Kia Arena.
"I had so much experience playing here in the hot weather, long matches. I feel like almost every year I played here I played a long one in the first round," Collins told ESPN's Pam Shriver afterward. "It just seems like maybe it's good to get some extra court time when you're in the first round. I don't know.
"The climate is so similar to Florida I just feel I really thrive when it's really warm. I just kind of almost play better sometimes when it's hotter."
Taking timeout to have her left knee taped, Collins exuded the toughness she showed en route to her maiden major final in Melbourne.
"I've previously had a meniscus tear and cartilage tear in this knee so anytime I feel it I get concerned," Collins said. "Early on in the first set, I wanted to kind of nip it in the bud and get some pressure off it and the WTA physios were amazing...Once the andrenaline got going you kind of ignore the pain a bit. It's amazing with injuries sometimes once the adrenaline gets going, you just ignore it."
Picking up right where she left off in her sharp 6-2, 6-2 thrashing of world No. 1 Iga Swiatek at United Cup, Pegula hit with accuracy and depth dissecting the world No. 161 on the strength of five service breaks.
Madrid finalist Pegula downplayed the significance of her United Cup upset of Swiatek, but it certainly solidified her confidence for this Melbourne opener.
"To me it just felt like another match," Pegula said of beating the world No. 1. "Again, I felt like I played pretty flawless in a way. It was just one of those matches where I really liked the conditions there and I was feeling it.
"She maybe wasn't totally comfortable yet with the courts and the conditions."
On a day in which her family-owned Buffalo Bills opened the NFL playoffs withstanding a stiff test from the Miami Dolphins, Pegula drained the drama from this match with forcing flat drives to open the court.
World No. 3 Pegula set the tone on serve. She served 67 percent and won 25 of 30 first-serve points in improving to 5-1 on the season.
The two-time Australian Open quarterfinalist will face either 15-year-old Czech qualifier Brenda Fruhvirtova or Aliaksandra Sasnovich in round two.
The seventh-seeded Gauff joins Pegula and Veronika Kudermetova as the only three woman currently ranked in the Top 10 in singles and doubles.
Auckland champion Gauff applied her transition skills at the right time winning 15 of 19 trips to net to raise her record to 6-0 in 2023, including sweeping all 12 sets she's played.
In her last appearance on Rod Laver Arena, Siniakova partnered Barbora Krejcikova to capture the Australian Open doubles. In her last meeting vs. Gauff, Siniakova won in straight sets in Billie Jean King Cup competition.
Anticipating shrewdly, Gauff beat Siniakova to the ball and beat her down with jolting backhand drives in the opening set. Siniakova began to torment the 18-year-old American teenager's weaker forehand wing in breaking for a 4-2 second-set lead.
Gauff drained forehand errors to break right back sparking a streak of four games in a row to close.
The final game was the longest and toughest of the match. Siniakova saved six match points and Gauff erased three break points as the game escalated to 11 minutes.
On her seventh match point, Gauff streaked forward and slid a backhand volley winner to beat Siniakova for the fourth time in five meetings.
The Roland Garros finalist's reward for this win is a blockbuster second-round meeting vs. 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu.
Recovering from rolling her ankle in a second-round Auckland loss, Raducanu moved well and nearly tripled Tamara Korpatsch's winner total—27 to 10—in a 6-3, 6-2 victory. It is the 20-year-old Raducanu's first Grand Slam win since her Wimbledon first-round victory over Alison van Uytvanck last June.
It will be the first pro meeting between the seventh-ranked Gauff and 77th-ranked Raducanu.
It was a good day for former US Open champions.
Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion, burst out of the box quickly.
Asserting her all-court skills, Andreescu won 15 of 18 trips to net toppling 25th-seeded Marie Bouzkova 6-2, 6-4 and take a step toward a potential third-round showdown vs. world No. 1 Swiatek.