American Coco Gauff cruised to victory in her debut match at the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday, delivering a commanding 6-0, 6-0 win over Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands in just 51 minutes. This win represents Gauff’s first-ever main-draw triumph on the Hologic WTA Tour without dropping a single game. Previously, she had only lost one game in a tour-level main-draw match on four occasions, with two instances occurring last year against Ons Jabeur at the WTA Finals and Yulia Putintseva in Rome.
Reflecting on her outstanding performance, Gauff commented, “I played really well today. She’s a great, tough opponent, especially on clay, but it was just one of those days for me. Oh-and-oh, I’ve never done that before, I’ll probably never do it again. I knew how she was going to play. I know she grinds, puts a lot of balls in court, and likes to play heavy — but I just felt like those are things that I can do well too. I felt like I could step in more, and having that match against Brenda [Fruhvirtova, Rus’ first-round opponent] to scout her kind of helped.”
Further examination of Gauff’s milestone victory reveals that she only conceded 18 points throughout the entire match, with eight points dropped in the first set and 10 in the second set. Despite her dominant performance, Gauff only won three of the 12 games with a love scoreline, with the match’s final game being one of them.
Gauff’s achievement places her in an elite category of players who have secured a 6-0, 6-0 victory at the Mutua Madrid Open, joining Victoria Azarenka in 2011 and Simona Halep in 2019. Additionally, she joins Aryna Sabalenka and Renata Zarazua as the only players to achieve this feat in any tour-level main-draw match in 2024. Sabalenka achieved the scoreline against Lesia Tsurenko in the third round of the Australian Open, while Zarazua defeated wild card Mariana Isabel Higuita Barraza in the opening round in Bogota.
4: Gauff thwarted all four break points she faced in the match, all of which arose in the second game of the second set. This particular game saw three deuces before Gauff emerged victorious.
6: In contrast, Gauff converted six out of seven break point opportunities she created for herself.
72: Despite Rus landing 72% of her first serves throughout the match, Gauff managed to secure victory in 75% of the points played during Rus’ service games.
10: Rus, aged 33, has now endured defeat in her last 10 matches against Top 10 opponents. Her record stands at 2-13 against such players over her career, with her last victory against a player of this caliber occurring against Samantha Stosur at Wimbledon in 2012.
14: Over the course of the 12 games played, Gauff registered 14 winners compared to 10 unforced errors. Conversely, Rus managed just two winners and committed 15 unforced errors during the match.
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