Melbourne, Australia — coco goff And venus williams The Australian Open second round clash could mark another potential chapter in the tennis story that began when the 15-year-old defeated the seven-time major winner at Wimbledon in her Grand Slam debut.
Gauff thanked Williams for being an inspiration to her career after that win at the All England Club in 2019, saying “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her.”
He then won the first round at the Australian Open in 2020.
She is now the No. 3 seed and a two-time major winner. Williams, 45, has received a wild-card entry for the Australian Open, where she is playing for the first time in five years.
The tournament starts on Sunday at Melbourne Park. When the draw was made on Thursday, Gauff was set to open against the 91-ranked player Kamila RakhimovaAnd No. 576-ranked Williams – who made her Australian Open debut in 1998 and has reached the final twice – faced No. 68-ranked Williams. Olga Danilovich In the first round.
Williams is set to become the oldest woman to compete in the main draw of the Australian Open, surpassing the previous record held by Japan’s Kimiko Date, who was 44 when she lost in the first round at Melbourne Park in 2015.
To have any chance of facing Gauff again, she needs to do something she hasn’t done in 2026: win. Over the past two weeks, Williams played tournaments in New Zealand and Hobart, losing in the first round in both.
After a 6-4, 6-3 win over Williams on Tuesday, tatjana maria Said it was hard because “everybody loves Venus. I love her too.”
Gauff and Williams are in the same half of the top-ranked draw Arina SabalenkaWho won consecutive Australian Open titles before losing in the final last year madison keys.
Sabalenka, who started her season with a title in Brisbane last week, has a potential third-round clash against the 2021 US Open winner. emma raducanu.
Defending champion Keys, who lost her quarterfinal match to the rising Canadian star at the Adelaide International Victoria Mboko Drawn in three sets on Thursday, the same quarter as No. 6 jessica pegula and number 4 amanda anisimova.
Number 2-Rank inga swiatekLooking for a career Grand Slam with his first title at Melbourne Park, he is in the bottom quarter on that side of the draw and has a potential fourth-round match against a four-time major winner Naomi Osaka.
Janic Sinner And novak djokovic Landed in the same half of the draw, setting up a potential semi-final between the defending champions and the 24-time major winner.
Djokovic, who has won 10 Australian titles but has not progressed beyond the semi-finals at Melbourne Park since 2023, played an exhibition francis tiafoe at Rod Laver Arena a few hours after the draw was made. She withdrew from a practice tournament in Adelaide last week to give herself more time to prepare for the Open.
on top spot carlos alcaraz Sinner and Djokovic are on opposite sides, and Tiafoe and local hope and sixth seed Alex de Minaur In your quarter of the draw.
