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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nGauff stayed calm under pressure, firing 17 winners and winning 64% of points at the net en route to a confident 7-6(5), 6-3 victory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Venus was playing her first match since October, as she had to pull out of her pre-Melbourne events after suffering a \u201csetback\u201d in the form of a hip injury during practice. Perhaps that bit of rustiness showed at the start of the match, when Gauff broke serve and consolidated to love to open with a 2-0 lead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gauff found herself wrestling with Venus for control as the set unfolded and Venus raised her level. Both players struck highlight reel worthy shots as they dragged each other all around the court and up to the net. Venus saved two set points in style to stay in the contest at 5-4, and finally erased Gauff\u2019s one-break advantage a game later to level the score at 5-5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With both players fully dialed in, the tiebreaker unfolded similarly to how the set played out: Gauff got ahead early, claiming a mini-break in the first point and holding on to the lead – only for Venus to get them back to 5-5. But the 15-year-old stayed calm and served out the next two points to put away the set. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gauff took control of the second set quickly with another early break giving her a 3-0 lead. This time, however, Venus didn\u2019t seem to have another fightback in her, and wasn\u2019t able to match Gauff\u2019s all-court game and speed as the match went on. The teenager\u2019s lone break proved to be decisive, and she claimed the victory after an hour and 40 minutes on court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Into the Australian Open second round for the first time, Gauff will take on Romania\u2019s Sorana Cirstea next. Cirstea sprung an early upset, taking down No.32 seed Barbora Strycova 6-2, 7-6(5), earlier in the day to advance. “But for today, my mission was to win. I didn’t want to let the nerves come to me. I know I had a couple set points, and she played well. I knew I had to take it from her. She wasn’t going to give it to me. That was really the mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I think today has been the best match so far I played this year. I was a lot more focused. Yeah, I think today really showed what I worked on in my off-season.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Williams was impressed by the teenager’s ability in both their Grand Slam encounters. “I think honestly she played really well, consistently, both matches,” said Venus. “So I think that was some of the similarities. She just played really well and really focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “She clearly wants it, works very hard, is extremely mature for her age. I think the sky’s the limit for her.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n www.wtatennis.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gauff Bests Venus Again In Blockbuster Australian Open Rematch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[58,56,54,20,55],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-australian-open","tag-coco","tag-gauff-bests-venus-again-in-blockbuster-australian-open-rematch","tag-tennis","tag-venus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/2020AustralianOpenPreviewsniCV4MFVodhl.jpg?resize=400%2C600\")
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\n“My mission is to be the greatest,” Gauff told reporters. “That’s my goal, to win as many Grand Slams as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/download-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C576\")
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