Coco Gauff sets up exciting second round showdown with Naomi Osaka

Osaka leads Gauff 2-1 in head-to-head but their next match will the first with Gauff being the higher ranked of the two

Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka at the 2020 Australian Open Image Credit: Zuma / Panoramic

August 3, 2022

American Coco Gauff, the No 6 seed, was in dazzling form on Tuesday night at the San Jose Open she scored a straight sets win over Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina.

Gauff, the 18-year-old American who reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open in June, needed only 54 minutes to beat Kalinina 6-1, 6-0 in her first match since her third round exit at Wimbledon.

Gauff hit seven aces, along with five doubles faults, and won 89 per cent of her first serve points in the contest. She also saved the lone break point against her serve while breaking Kalinina’s serve on five occasions and later described it one of the best matches she has played.

Coco Gauff said she was fully in the zone tonight, played the perfect match. "I don't think I'll play a match that perfect until years from now. It's usually 1-2 matches in a season that you get that to happen." #MubadalaSVC https://t.co/8nggdLDABK
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) August 3, 2022

Gauff Osaka Part IV in San Jose

The win sets up an exciting second round clash with four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka, who needed three sets to beat China’s Qinwen Zheng6-4, 3-6, 6-1 earlier on Tuesday.

This will be the fourth meeting between the two players with Osaka leading their head-to-head by 2-1 but the first with Gauff being the higher ranked of the two players. The American teen is currently ranked 11th in the world with a chance to break into the top 10 with a good run this week while Osaka is now ranked 41st in the world.

The first two times that the pair met were at back-to-back Majors – the 2019 US Open and the 2020 Australian Open. While Osaka won their clash in New York, it was Gauff who came away a winner in Melbourne with both of their matches being won in straight sets.

The most recent meeting between Gauff and Osaka came in Cincinnati last year which Osaka won in three sets.

San Jose WTA 500, first-round matches (San Jose State University Tennis Center, hard, USD 757.900)