US Open: The No. 4 seed Coco Gauff played excellent tennis to take down a resilient Zeynep Sonmez, 6-3, 6-4, and advanced to the second round of the US Open.
The 22-year-old American, competing in her eighth US Open main draw, entered this year’s Open as one of the favorites, courtesy of a recent run of fine form that included semifinal showings at Wimbledon and Toronto and the title in Cincinnati.
The last time she won the Cincinnati Open, in 2023, she went on to win that year’s Open for her first Grand Slam title. Gauff added a second Slam crown at Roland Garros in 2025.
Gauff posted two aces and a service winner in her first service game, dominated on serve in her next two service games, broke Sonmez for a 4-2 lead and held strong to claim the opening set in a tidy 32 minutes.
Sonmez showed her mettle and upped her game in the second set, charging the net to change momentum and rallying from down an early break to make it interesting. The world No. 53 forced three break points, but Gauff saved all three, held on the 16th point of the game and promptly broke her opponent to take a 4-3 advantage she would never relinquish, US Open reports, US Open reports.
With the victory, Gauff keeps alive her chance to finish the tournament as the No. 1 singles player in the world; her previous high was No. 2, achieved in June 2024. If she were to accomplish the feat, Gauff would be the first woman to reach No. 1 in the world in both singles and doubles since current singles No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who became the top doubles player in the world in February 2021 and hit the top spot in singles in September 2023. Gauff ascended to No. 1 in the world in doubles in August 2022.
Next up for Gauff is a marquee second-rounder against either Paula Badosa, the former world No. 2 and 2024 US Open quarterfinalist, or Daria Kasatkina, the former world No. 8 and 2022 French Open semifinalist
Earlier, No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva got her Flushing Meadows campaign off to an emphatic start, defeating world No. 36 Janice Tjen, 6-2, 6-2, to advance to the second round for the fourth straight year.
Next up for Gauff is a marquee second-rounder against either Paula Badosa, the former world No. 2 and 2024 US Open quarterfinalist, or Daria Kasatkina, the former world No. 8 and 2022 French Open semifinalist
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Andreeva will next play world No. 98 Eva Lys.