Former finalist opens account with win over qualifying debutante
©️Rèmy Chautard / FFTCoco Gauff takes a swift win as a bonus after opening her Roland-Garros campaign on the right foot on Monday.
The third seed put paid to Grand Slam debutante Julia Avdeeva’s hopes of a sizeable upset on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, running out a convincing 6-1, 6-1 winner in just 52 minutes.
Gauff’s Grand Slam debut followed a somewhat similar path when she won through Wimbledon qualifying at Roehampton only to draw a big-name player on No.1 Court.
The then heavily hyped 15-year-old stunned Venus Williams that day en route to the fourth round.
Fortunately for her, there was no such risk of being on the receiving end of such a boilover at the hands of a qualifier on debut at the first hurdle.
The highest-ranked opponent Avdeeva had squared off against was world No.75 Oceane Dodin at ITF level prior to taking her place in the main draw at a major for the first time.
This was a considerable step up for the world No.208 and the nerves were evident from the off when she was staring down a bagel set in the blink of an eye.
It was not until the sixth game that the 21-year-old managed to hold to get her name on the board but it was merely delaying the inevitable as Gauff held to love on a confident drop shot at the 24-minute mark.
There was no hiding the looks of despair and mutterings of helplessness towards her box when Avdeeva was broken in the opening game of the second set.
It was all going wrong for Avdeeva. A head clash with the umpire when the pair both leant in to inspect a ball mark momentarily stopped play before she returned to the baseline with a grin and a red mark on her forehead.
Unfortunately for Avdeeva, it did nothing to slow the 2022 finalist’s progression to a second-round meeting with 2021 semi-finalist and another qualifier, Tamara Zidansek.
Having readily admitted to struggles on serve throughout the European clay-court swing, what had been Gauff’s Achilles heel leading in had become her greatest asset on Monday.
The American extended her perfect record in the opening round in Paris to 5-0 and left with impressive numbers on serve.
Heading into Rome she was averaging almost 10 double faults a match on clay. On Monday, she committed just four.
While she would be keen to lift her first-serve percentage above the 63 per cent recorded, she dropped just one of 24 points when she landed the first delivery. She never faced a break point throughout.
"I never played her. She had a good run in the qualifying. I think I just came out playing well, and I would say I do think she was a little bit nervous with the bigger court, but I played well too... Today was kind of a straightforward match. I didn't have to do much. I wouldn't say I, like, played amazing. I just had to play solid today. That's what I did."
On the temptation to go for more on serve with a commanding lead: "It is tempting, especially when you're in the lead. I did try a serve-and-volley, but she didn't make the return so I didn't get to volley it back.
"Yeah, when you're in the lead, you do go bigger. The last game when I was serving I tried to go bigger than I was the whole match. But yeah, for the most part, you should stay with what you were doing to get the lead. It is tempting sometimes."
On finding success on drop shots: "My coach is a French player and that's his specialty - hitting all the defence shots - so I've been trying to do better at that. Today I think I made three drops shots today and missed one. That's pretty good for me. Sometimes it's 50-50.”
ROLAND-GARROS
19 May - 8 June 2025
