Gauff rediscovers top form to double bagel Kenin in Miami

Coco Gauff stormed back to form on home soil at the Miami Open on Thursday as she crushed Sofia Kenin 6-0, 6-0 to reach the third round.

Beaten in the last 16 in Indian Wells, Gauff revelled in front of her family seated courtside as she wrapped up victory in just 47 minutes, with a tearful Kenin winning just 18 points in the match.

It was just the second double bagel of Gauff’s career, following on from her win over Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus in Madrid last year. The American will play either Italian Lucia Bronzetti or Greek Maria Sakkari, the No 28 seed, next.

“I think just relaxing and enjoying,” Gauff said, asked what the key to such a win was. “We played multiple times. I’ve lost to her before. Today I just came in here, I have my family in the crowd, it allowed me to be a bit relaxed. They’re over there.

“I tried my best to keep it short but I didn’t expect it to be that quick. I know it was hot.”

Worried about the 6-0 curse

Gauff said she was concerned at the start of the second set that she might let her concentration slip, something that often happens to players when they have won a set 6-0.

“That first game of the second set I was kind of, not nervous but a little tight because I wanted to keep that momentum going,” she told Tennis Channel.

And she said she was glad her hard work in practice was paying off.

“The last few weeks, I feel like sometimes I play and things that normally do well I haven’t been doing so well, but I’ve been doing it well in practice, so I have trust that it will come good in a tournament.

Kenin, ranked No 46, had beaten wildcard Petra Kvitova (6-4, 7-5) in the previous round of the Miami tournament, and had won two of her four matches with Gauff in the past.

But after failing to take a break point in the third game, she crumbled and Gauff, whose serve and forehand fell apart in Indian Wells, romped to victory.

Miami WTA 1000, other second-round results (Hard Rock Stadium, hard, USD 8.963.700, most recent results first):

• Sorana Cirstea vs. Danielle Collins
• Caroline Garcia vs. Iga Swiatek
• Elise Mertens vs. Peyton Stearns
• Belinda Bencic vs. Elina Svitolina
• Karolina Muchova vs. Victoria Azarenka
• Victoria Mboko vs. Paula Badosa
• Clara Tauson vs. Julia Grabher
• Alexandra Eala vs. Jelena Ostapenko
• Madison Keys vs. Elina Avanesyan
• Bernarda Pera vs. Jessica Pegula
• Anna Kalinskaya vs. Moyuka Uchijima
• Kimberly Birrell vs. Marta Kostyuk
• Diana Shnaider vs. Anna Blinkova
• Veronika Kudermetova vs. Mirra Andreeva
• Amanda Anisimova vs. Mayar Sherif
• McCartney Kessler vs. Linda Noskova
• Emma Navarro vs. Emma Raducanu
• Linda Fruhvirtova vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Naomi Osaka vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Daria Kasatkina vs. Hailey Baptiste
• Lucia Bronzetti vs. Maria Sakkari
• Donna Vekic vs. Rebeka Masarova
• Ons Jabeur vs. Katerina Siniakova
• Taylor Townsend vs. Yulia Putintseva
• Aryna Sabalenka vs. Viktoriya Tomova
• Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Magda Linette
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Alycia Parks: thursday
• Ashlyn Krueger vs. Elena Rybakina: thursday
• Jasmine Paolini (6) beat Rebecca Sramkova: 6-4, 6-4
• Qinwen Zheng (9) beat Lauren Davis: 6-1, 7-5
• Elena-Gabriela Ruse (Q) beat Magdalena Frech (29): 6-4, 6-4