Emma Raducanu, 20, was full of praise for Cori Gauff following their Australian Open match and predicted there would be many more of their matches in the future. Gauff, 18, defeated Raducanu 6-3 7-6 (4) in the Australian Open second round.
Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, was playing against 2022 French Open finalist Gauff for the first time. “She is a great mover, a great athlete. She puts another ball in play, so you feel like you have to squeeze it closer to the line and then she kind of teases errors out of you that way.
I think she’s a good athlete. It’s one of her strengths. I think that we’re going to be playing each other many times in the future as we’re both young, up and coming. We’re going to be the next generation,” Raducanu said of Gauff, per Sky Sports.
Raducanu didn’t go down to Gauff without a fight
Raducanu found herself down by a break after losing her serve in the fourth game, but she broke back Gauff in the fifth game. But just after getting a break back, Raducanu again lost her serve as the American broke the Briton in the sixth game and held on to her serve the rest of the set to win the opener.
In the second set, Gauff broke Raducanu in the third game to go up by a set and a break. However, Raducanu refused to quit and she got the break back in the eighth game. As no more breaks were seen, the second set had to be resolved in a tie-break.
In the tie-break, Raducanu and Gauff were tied to two points apiece before the American won the next four points to take a 6-2 lead. Raducanu saved the first two match points but couldn’t save the third as Gauff completed a two-set win against the Briton.
Now, Raducanu will return home. Previously, Raducanu kicked off her 2023 season in Auckland, where she won her first-round match before retiring injured her round-of-16 match.
