Coco Gauff said that she had butterflies in her stomach in her first round match of the Australian Open 2024 against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

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The 19-year-old took an hour to win the match 6-3, 6-0, but the match wasn’t as easy for her as the scorecard looks.

In the opening set, Gauff conceded three breaks of serve to have her fair share of hiccups. However, she somehow earned four breaks to get out of jail.

“When I was nervous at three-all, I just told myself ‘I feel good, I look good, so just have fun’. That was able to relax me a little bit – that’s why I play tennis, to have fun, so I remind myself,” Gauff was quoted as saying.

“Australia’s truly the happy slam, so I needed to just be happy on the court. I was playing really passive. I was able to just calm down and then play good, not my best, but good tennis from that pointâ€æI was just playing much deeper and much freer,” she stated.

After she won the opening set, Gauff did not look back and eased past Schmiedlova in the second. In the second set, she clinched four breaks and conceded none to come up trumps.

Gauff, who won the ASB Classic in Auckland earlier this year, said that once she started serving well, she found her rhythm.

“I found my serve towards the end [of the first] and in the second set. My serve is something that when it’s on, it’s a really big weapon and can get me out of some situations,” Gauff added.

Gauff, who open her Grand Slam account last year with the US Open win, is next set to be up against Caroline Dolehide in the second round.