Coco Gauff has soared into the third round of the Australian Open after breezing past Olga Danilovic.
Gauff beat Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the tournament, before a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Danilovic.
She is the third seed at the Australian Open, with her fellow American Hailey Baptiste now awaiting her in round three.
Gauff needed just one hour and 18 minutes to overcome Danilovic, and should be feeling fresh after a one-hour, 39-minute opener.
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Coco Gauff ignores coach’s drop shot advice in Australian Open win
Intriguingly, the two-time Grand Slam champion admitted going against her coaching team during the meeting with Danilovic.
The WTA number three said on court after the win: “We’ll do two minutes at the end of practice with them, and then honestly, the drop shot, it’s always a bad idea in my head.
“And then I make it and I’m like, ‘Okay, that was good’. I saw Carlos [Alcaraz] yesterday, and I was like, I’m trying to drop shot like him.
“In my first match, I won like seven drop shot points, which I don’t think I’ve ever done. And then today, I won, like all of them that I did, so it’s a good shot until I miss it.
“My coach told me, ‘Don’t go drop shot on pressure points’, and I think almost every time I did a drop shot today was on a pressure point and it worked.”
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Coco Gauff proves serving struggles aren’t as bad as people think
While Gauff was delighted with her drop shot success, she should also be really pleased with her serving efforts.
The American’s struggles in that area are well documented, with the 21-year-old having comfortably topped the pile for double faults on the WTA Tour in both 2024 and 2025.
But she impressed in that key area in her latest match, which she finished with 84% of her first serve points won.
The impressive figure, a result of 26 of 31 points won, is 16 percentage points higher than the WTA Tour average.
And while Gauff should be eager to further improve her serving, she can also take confidence after reducing her double faults tally from seven to four across her two matches in Melbourne.
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