MELBOURNE: Third-seeded Coco Gauff had some familiar struggles on serve but had still enough class and power to defeat Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2, 6-3 on Monday in a first-round match at the Australian Open.
Gauff has won two Grand Slam titles but has never gone past the semifinals at Melbourne Park. She was knocked out in the quarterfinals last year.
The American has struggled with double-faults and had 431 in 2025 on the WTA Tour, by far the most of any player. No one else had more than 300. Gauff had six in the first set in the victory over Rakhimova, and only one in the second set.
The 21-year-old Gauff has been reworking her serve for the last several months and practiced some more during a comfort break in the match at Rod Laver Arena with Rakhimova.
Gauff faces left-handed Olga Danilovic in the second round. Danilovic defeated 45-year-old Venus Williams on Sunday in a first-round match, which erased the possibility of the two Americans facing off.
“There’s not many (left-handed players) on Tour, but Olga’s a great player, she’s beat some top players so it’s going to be a tough match,” Gauff said.
No. 4 Amanda Anisimova, runner-up at the last two majors, advanced 6-3, 6-2 over Simona Waltert, No. 6 Jessica Pegula beat Anastasia Zakharova 6-2, 6-1 and No. 14 Clara Tauson had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Dalma Galfi.
Former champ out
Sofia Kenin’s poor recent run at the Australian Open continued as she lost 6-3, 6-2 to fellow-American Peyton Stearns.
Kenin was a surprise winner here in 2020, but has since struggled at Melbourne Park losing in the first round for the fifth consecutive time.
No. 15 Emma Navarro lost in three sets to Magda Linette of Poland.
Auger-Aliassime retires with injury
In an early result on the men’s side, No. 7 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada retired in his match with Nuno Borges of Portugal. Borges led 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 after just over two hours when the 25-year-old walked to the net to shake hands.
“I’m OK, but I just started cramping at the start of the third set,” the Canadian said. “Yeah, it became very difficult to be competitive at this level. I tried for a set, but yeah, wasn’t possible today.
“I can’t recall ever in my life (cramping) this early in a tournament, this early in a match.”
In other men’s first-round matches three-time Australian Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev beat Jesper de Jong 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (2) to continue a streak Down Under that included a title run in Brisbane. No. 19 seed Tommy Paul defeated Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in an all-American match to advance along with Reilly Opelka and No. 13 Andrey Rublev.
Local hope Alex de Minaur, the No. 6 seed, beat Mackenzie McDonald — a lucky loser from qualifying who replaced the injured former Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini — 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 in an afternoon match on Rod Laver Arena.
Coco Gauff advances to second round at Australian Open despite serving struggles
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Coco Gauff advances to second round at Australian Open despite serving struggles
- Gauff has struggled with double-faults and had 431 in 2025 on the WTA Tour, by far the most of any player
- No one else had more than 300. Gauff had six in the first set in the victory over Rakhimova and one in the second set
Like Leicester and Bodø/Glimt, Swiss soccer club Thun set to be historic league champion
- Thun have never won the top-tier league in the club’s 128-year history yet this season has turned the standings into a procession
- Thun are the latest unheralded European club taking inspiration from Leicester
GENEVA: Like Leicester’s Premier League title in 2016 and Bodø/Glimt’s stunning rise in Norway since 2020, Swiss soccer looks set to get its own surprise champion.
Thun have never won the top-tier league in the club’s 128-year history yet this season has turned the standings into a procession — even as a newly promoted club.
A 2-2 draw with second-place St. Gallen late Thursday stopped Thun’s run of 10 straight wins yet coach Mauro Lustrinelli’s team are 14 points clear with 10 rounds left.
“We are also a young team in the sense that the team are experiencing their first Super League,” Lustrinelli told Swiss public broadcaster SRF after his players conceded a stoppage-time goal to drop points for the first time since December.
Thun head Sunday to local rival Young Boys, a 17-time title winner and Champions League regular in recent years, as the current best team in Switzerland.
Following Leicester’s lead
Thun are the latest unheralded European club taking inspiration from Leicester.
Last year, Union Saint-Gilloise won their first Belgian title for 90 years and tiny Mjällby were champion of Sweden for the first time in their 86-year history.
Title races across Europe see Hearts on course for a first Scottish title in 66 years and Paris Saint-Germain being chased by Lens which won their only French title 28 years ago.
The most common link is clubs in provincial towns and cities run on low budgets with a collective team-first ethic.
“You really feel that it’s like a family,” Lustrinelli said last year when extending his contract at the club where he was once a star striker and has coached for four seasons.
Thun’s key players
It took Thun five years to get out of the second division after being relegated in 2020. That period included severe financial issues and being part of a multi-club ownership group backed by American and Chinese investors.
Thun are independent and locally owned again, and built a plan with Lustrinelli for a team playing the direct, pressing style he wants with two central strikers.
Top scorer this season is 12-goal Elmin Rastoder, a Swiss-born North Macedonia international who could feature in the World Cup playoffs against Denmark later this month.
Rastoder’s strike partner Thursday was Brighton Labeau, once a teammate of Kylian Mbappé, who is three years younger, when they were both in the Monaco academy.
Thun’s star prospect is Ethan Meichtry, a Switzerland under-21 midfielder who could yet make the World Cup squad.
Champions League debut
Thun were one of the smallest clubs to play in the Champions League after Lustrinelli’s 20-goal season lifted the team to Swiss league runner-up in 2005.
Thun advanced through two qualifying rounds to reach the elite stage, finishing third in a group behind Arsenal and Ajax.
Back then, Thun played European games at Young Boys’ stadium in Bern because their old home was below UEFA standard.
If Thun enter the Champions League in the second qualifying round in July, home games should be at their 10,000-seat Stockhorn Arena — with artificial turf, just like at Bodø/Glimt inside the Arctic Circle in Norway.
The Swiss champion must win through three qualifying rounds to reach the 36-team league phase.
Home of Swiss soccer
Thun will soon be the home of Switzerland’s soccer federation.
The Swiss Football Home project was approved last August and will include a new headquarters for the federation plus training fields for national teams. Next door will likely be the next Swiss champion.
“The road is still long,” Lustrinelli said of the 10-game run-in, “and we want everyone who will help us get those 30 points.”
