{"id":35768,"date":"2026-05-29T09:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T07:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=35768"},"modified":"2026-05-29T09:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T07:32:16","slug":"gauff-earns-straight-sets-win-against-qualifier-sherif-at-french-open","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/gauff-earns-straight-sets-win-against-qualifier-sherif-at-french-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Gauff earns straight sets win against qualifier Sherif at French Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Defending champion Coco Gauff eased past Egyptian qualifier Mayar Sherif 6-3 6-2 on Thursday to punch her ticket for the French Open third round.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div>Gauff, landed her 80th career main draw victory at a Grand Slam, never hit top form, with her opponent offering some dogged resistance in the first set and keeping her off balance.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cIt was a physical tough match. I was really tested today. It took a lot of strength today,\u201d Gauff said.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI will be focusing on getting more my rhythm back because I did not have it today.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Sherif tried to rattle her opponent with moon balls early on but Gauff quickly raced to a 3-0 lead.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Her bright start looked to be fizzling out when Sherif, attempting to become the first woman from her country to reach the third round of Grand Slam in the Open era, regained the break.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Sherif had several chances to draw level in a sixth game that lasted more than 13 minutes but Gauff recovered her composure just in time to protect her lead and bag the set with an ace after an hour and three minutes.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Th pair traded early breaks in the second set, with Sherif punching the air when she earned hers to draw 2-2.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>But she could not keep up the hunt and Gauff pulled ahead with another break, sealing the win on her first opportunity after an hour and 50 minutes.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>She will next face either Britain\u2019s Katie Boulter or Austria\u2019s Anastasia Potapova.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22702,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-35768","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Sherif tried to rattle her opponent with moon balls early on but Gauff quickly raced to a 3-0 lead.","published_date":"","news_description":"Sherif tried to rattle her opponent with moon balls early on but Gauff quickly raced to a 3-0 lead.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35768","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\/35768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35769,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35768\/revisions\/35769"}],"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=35768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}