{"id":22701,"date":"2026-01-21T12:36:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T10:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/gauff-cruises-past-danilovic-into-australian-open-third-round\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:38","slug":"gauff-cruises-past-danilovic-into-australian-open-third-round","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/gauff-cruises-past-danilovic-into-australian-open-third-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Gauff cruises past Danilovic into Australian Open third round"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Third seed Coco Gauff beat Olga Danilovic 6-2 6-2 to move into the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday, denying the Serbian the chance to knock out a second American Grand Slam champion after she eliminated Venus Williams.<\/div>\n<div>Gauff, who beat Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2 6-3 in the first round, made quick work of Danilovic in 77 minutes at a sunny Margaret Court Arena to book a third-round encounter with compatriot Hailey Baptiste.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I felt pretty good out there. I thought it was a pretty straightforward win. Olga is a tricky player, but I&#8217;m just happy with how I managed today,&#8221; Gauff told reporters.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Danilovic&#8217;s chances of beating Gauff looked slim after just 22 minutes when the American surged out of the blocks to consolidate two early breaks and lead 5-0.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Serbian attempted to impose herself by taking risks from the baseline, but the strategy quickly unravelled as unforced errors spilled from her racket under relentless pressure.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Today I felt better than my first round, despite the score. Even though first round was a straightforward score, there were so many games that went long &#8212; 10-minute games that were deuce, ad, back and forth,&#8221; Gauff added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I think today I did better closing those games out quicker.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Trying to go toe-to-toe and hit through Gauff proved a fruitless endeavour, although Danilovic found some success when she mixed in the drop shot and ventured forward behind her serve.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Gauff, by contrast, was composed and clinical, leaving Danilovic short of breath between points by sending her sprinting from corner to corner.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>There was a flicker of relief when Danilovic finally got on the board after Gauff&#8217;s fourth double fault gifted her a game.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The respite was short-lived, however, as Danilovic returned the favour with her first double fault on set point.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Gauff showed no signs of easing off in the second set and secured another early break to go 3\u20130 ahead.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Danilovic summoned all her resolve in a gruelling 10-minute service game to get on the board, but it did little to stall Gauff&#8217;s momentum.<\/div>\n<div>After Danilovic saved one match point, Gauff converted a fifth break point to seal the match.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22702,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-22701","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Gauff beat Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2 6-3 in the first round.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Gauff beat Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2 6-3 in the first round.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25912,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22701\/revisions\/25912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}