Australian Open | Coco Gauff makes winning start over Rakhimova despite serving concerns

Coco Gauff opened her Australian Open campaign with a straightforward 6–2, 6–1 victory over Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova. The world No. 3 was dominant from the outset and, despite the return of her double-fault issues, managed to put together a solid performance to secure her first win of the tournament in Melbourne.

The American arrived with the ambition of improving on her previous Australian Open campaigns — where she reached the semifinals in 2024 and the quarterfinals in 2025. This time, as the third seed, she was looking to send a message to her main rivals that she can be a genuine title contender, and she delivered a convincing display against Rakhimova, even if there are still areas to improve should she truly want to fight for the championship.

Gauff committed a total of seven double faults and made 30 unforced errors throughout the match, winning just 33% of points behind her second serve. While she was not at her best level, it proved more than enough to seal a comfortable scoreline and move through her opening match without any major scares.

In the first set, it didn’t take Gauff long to take control of the match, after securing an early break. While the American didn’t show her usual consistency, she quickly moved to a 3–0 lead, although a rollercoaster of breaks from both sides soon began, with errors marking the early stages of the match for both players.

After half an hour, Gauff was up 5–1, having taken three consecutive breaks, while Rakhimova had responded with a break in 6 opportunities she had. The two-time Grand Slam champion was already starting to show problems with double faults, although she managed to stay in the game thanks to a wide margin created by Rakhimova’s own service errors.

The Uzbek saved several set points when serving in the following game, but she managed to keep herself alive — although not for much longer. In the final game of the set, for the first time in the match, Gauff held her service game without facing any break points and closed an erratic first set 6–2.

The start of the second set quickly favored Gauff, who, when limiting her errors, clearly controlled the pace of play — both from the backhand and forehand sides. The former WTA Finals champion had no problems with her serve this time and was effective when opportunities arose on the return. Gauff took five consecutive games — including two breaks in a row — and moved ahead to 5–1.

Rakhimova resisted giving up the match while Gauff applied pressure to close out the victory as quickly as possible. After four deuces, the Russian-born player held her service game, and with the change of ends, some doubts appeared from the American, who, with a double fault followed by a backhand error, gave the game to her opponent.

Just when it seemed that the American was complicating things, she showed her superiority and experience in handling these situations. Rakhimova served at 5–3, when the opportunities came — Gauff broke once again and finally sealed the win 6–2, 6–3 to advance to the second round of the Australian Open. Her next challenge will be against Serbia’s Olga Danilovic, who comes off eliminating Venus Williams in a remarkable three-set comeback.