Australian Open: Gauff extends winning streak to 8; meets Ostapenko next

Coco Gauff won against Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-2 on Friday and has yet to drop a set in 8 wins in 2023

Coco Gauff of the U.S. in action during her third round match against Bernarda Pera of the U.S. at the 2023 Australian Open Image Credit: AI/Reuters/Panoramic

Tennis Majors

January 20, 2023

Australian Open •Third round • completed

See draw

B. PeravsC. Gauff

Seventh seed Coco Gauff defeated Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Friday.

The 18-year-old American has yet to drop a set this fortnight, having also beaten Czech Katerina Siniakova (6-1, 6-4) and Emma Raducanu (6-3, 7-6 (4)) in straight sets in her first two rounds.

This is the second time in four main appearances at the Australian Open that she has reached the fourth round – the first one coming in her debut in 2020.

COCO GAUFF SEALS IT‼️

With her straight-set win, the 18-year-old is into the fourth round of the Australian Open 👏 pic.twitter.com/7vG0mD6Jhd
— ESPN (@espn) January 20, 2023

The American, who won the title in Auckland earlier this month, has now won eight matches in a row, without dropping a set.

She will aim to make that nine wins and 18 sets in a row when she takes on 17th seed Jelena Ostapenko next. The Latvian defeated Ukraine’s Kateryna Baindl 6-3, 6-0 in another third round encounter on Friday.

“I definitely feel like every match, I don’t know, I feel like I’m approaching it with importance. Yeah, obviously the last match definitely was hyped up from the outside. But on the inside for me felt really calm. I approached it as I did every other match. Same with today. But I definitely feel like my draw here is not, like, other than Emma, hadn’t had any, like, huge names, where I feel like tournaments in the past I’ve had. I wouldn’t say more relaxed, but not so much outside pressure.”