MELBOURNE: Coco Gauff won the battle of the game’s bright young prodigies on Wednesday as she battled past Emma Raducanu 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) and into the third round of the Australian Open.
There are 70 places separating seventh seed Gauff and 2021 US Open champion Raducanu in the current rankings, but you wouldn’t have known it as the pair tussled for an hour and 42 minutes of pulsating tennis on Rod Laver Arena.
The two good friends went toe-to-toe throughout, exchanging service breaks, but the turning point came in the second set when the American grittily saved two set points at 4-5.
Gauff then edged past the Briton on her third match point in the tiebreak before they embraced warmly at the net.
“I just told myself to hang in there and I was playing really good tennis towards the end,” said 18-year-old Gauff.
“In a Slam you have to win seven matches, you have to expect to play the best. Obviously you hope it’s not in the second round, but that’s what can happen.”
The 20-year-old Raducanu, who is ranked 77, showed no signs of the ankle injury that forced her out of the recent Auckland Classic, which Gauff won for her third WTA Tour title.
“Kudos to Emma,” said Gauff. “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.
“The whole match was great and considering the circumstances I can imagine both of us was nervous. This was a long-anticipated match-up since the draw came out.”
It was Gauff who struck the first blow, securing the first set after 43 minutes.
She kept up the momentum at the start of the second with an early break but Raducanu, moving in closer to attack the American’s second serve, aggressively hit back to square the set at 4-4.
But Gauff held on to set up a third-round clash against fellow American Bernada Pera or China’s Zheng Qinwen.
Raducanu was trying to reach the third round of a Slam for the first time since her shock win as a qualifier at the 2021 US Open.
Gauff is on a seven-match winning streak in 2023 and eyeing a first major of her own after reaching her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros last year.
The pair know each other well from the junior ranks but this was their first tour-level match.
When Gauff first shot to prominence as a 15-year-old qualifier by beating Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2019, Raducanu was on the outside courts playing in the girls singles.
Two years later it was Raducanu’s turn in the teenage spotlight as she won her first Grand Slam title.
But she plunged down the rankings last year after a first full season on tour hampered by injuries and patchy form.
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