Coco Gauff crushed her fellow American Sofia Kenin 6-0, 6-0 at the Miami Open on Thursday, as the former US Open champion produced a flawless display to reach the third round.
Gauff, aiming to win her maiden Miami Open title, won 84% of her first-serve points, saved the one break point she faced and converted six of her nine break points in the 47-minute match.
Up next for the third seed, who was eliminated in the round of 16 at Indian Wells last week, will be Ashlyn Krueger, who upset Elena Rybakina, the seventh seed, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. Victory over the former Wimbledon champion Rybakina, who during the loss managed a 22-point winning streak on serve, was the first top-10 win of Krueger’s career.
In the men’s draw, Jacob Fearnley earned a spot in the second round with victory over Benjamin Bonzi. In a close battle lasting two hours and 19 minutes the Briton claimed a 7-6, 2-6, 6-4 win and he will now meet Alexander Zverev, the world No 2 and top seed, in the second round.
Little separated Fearnley and Bonzi in the first set as both players held their serve to reach a tiebreaker, where qualifier Fearnley edged ahead to take the second set point of the match. Another tight encounter followed at the start of the second, but Bonzi suddenly pulled away after breaking the Briton’s serve twice to win the set.
Before the third set Fearnley took a medical timeout and, after another closely contested set, the 23-year-old managed to see the match out to reach the last 64.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Fearnley said: “That was extremely difficult, I was feeling my legs, especially my left leg twitching a little bit when I moved to a forehand. Just had to dig deep and luckily I got the break at the start of the third because I think that could have easily got away from me. Super happy to get the win and to move on.”
Fearnley’s compatriot Cameron Norrie was handed a straight sets defeat by Bu Yunchaokete in the opening round of the competition, losing 6-4, 6-2. Norrie had his serve broken in the opening game and, despite some determined fightback, trailed for most of the match as the Chinese pulled away to claim the first set.
Norrie continued to struggle and had his serve broken twice in the second set by Bu, who put in a dominant display – which included eight aces – to cruise into the second round.
The former finalist Kei Nishikori withdrew from his opener, citing the need for more time to recover after reaching the semi-finals of an ATP Challenger Tour event last week.
“My body has not recovered enough from the matches last week. I will now go home and get ready for the clay court season,” the 35-year-old Japanese wrote on X.
