Madrid Open: Gauff claim easy win to reach third round

Coco Gauff needed just 51 minutes to win her opening match at the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday, as she didn’t lose a game in a 6-0, 6-0 victory against Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands.

The win marks the first Hologic WTA Tour-level main-draw victory of Gauff’s career in which she did not lose a game. She previously lost just one game in a tour-level main-draw match four times in her career, and last year, she did that twice — against Ons Jabeur at the WTA Finals and Yulia Putintseva in Rome.

The American saved all four break points she faced in the match, all of which came in the second game of the second set. That game went to deuce three times before Gauff won it.

The 20-year-old is the third player to score a 6-0, 6-0 main-draw win at the Mutua Madrid Open: Victoria Azarenka beat Vera Dushevina by such a score in 2011, and Simona Halep won against Viktoria Hruncakova in 2019.

She’s also the third player to win a 6-0, 6-0 match in any tour-level main-draw match in 2024. Aryna Sabalenka recorded the scoreline against Lesia Tsurenko in the third round of the Australian Open, and Renata Zarazua defeated wild card Mariana Isabel Higuita Barraza in the opening round in Bogota.