By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday January 1, 2024
Defending Auckland champion Coco Gauff scored a season opening win over American Claire Liu.
Photo Source: Getty
Coco Gauff made her biggest breakthrough in 2023, winning the US Open title in stunning fashion. In 2024, she’s hoping to prove that the triumph was just a stepping stone.
"I'm still training just as hard as when I was chasing my first Grand Slam,” she said this week in Auckland, according to WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen. “Now I'm chasing my second one."
Gauff is up and running in 2024, having eased past compatriot Claire Liu 6-4, 6-2 on Tuesday at the ASB Classic, the 19-year-old feeling fresh and confident after a long and productive off season.
"Ever since I was a kid I always had big goals for my career," Gauff, who played just two tournaments after winning the US Open last year, said. "Winning a Slam gave me reassurance that I could reach those goals. I don't think my motivation has stopped in any way. I probably feel even more motivated because the feeling I had at match point [at the US Open] was a crazy feeling."
Gauff needed 82 minutes to power to victory, breaking 95th-ranked Liu’s serve five times to set a second-round clash with 16-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova. The highly touted Czech, the younger sister of Linda Fruhvirtova, earned her maiden WTA win over Anna Blinkova, 7-5, 6-4.
Gauff stretched her Auckland winning streak to six matches – she defeated Rebeka Masarova in the final last year and won all ten sets she played.
Svitolina Tops Wozniacki
Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina is hoping to continue her strong form from 2023 and she did just that on Tuesday in Auckland as she eased past Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3 to book her spot in the second round.
25th-ranked Svitolina improves to 5-1 lifetime over Wozniacki, capturing the pair’s first meeting since the 2018 WTA Finals.
Both players are recently back on tour after becoming mothers. 29-year-old Svitolina returned to the tour last spring after giving birth to baby Skai in October of 2022, and made deep runs at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon.
Wozniacki, now a mother of two, returned to the tour last summer and reached the round of 16 at the US Open. The 33-year-old won the Australian Open in 2018 and left the sport to start a family in 2020.
Svitolina will race Emma Raducanu or Elena-Gabriela Ruse in the second round.