American Coco Gauff needed just 51 minutes to win her opening match at the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday, as she didn't lose a game in a 6-0, 6-0 victory against Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands.
The win marks the first Hologic WTA Tour-level main-draw victory of Gauff's career in which she did not lose a game. She previously lost just one game in a tour-level main-draw match four times in her career, and last year, she did that twice -- against Ons Jabeur at the WTA Finals and Yulia Putintseva in Rome.
"I played really well today. She's a great, tough opponent, especially on clay, but it was just one of those days for me," Gauff said afterwards. "Oh-and-oh, I've never done that before, I'll probably never do it again.
"I knew how she was going to play. I know she grinds, puts a lot of balls in court, and likes to play heavy -- but I just felt like those are things that I can do well too. I felt like I could step in more, and having that match against Brenda [Fruhvirtova, Rus' first-round opponent] to scout her kind of helped."
Read on for more notable numbers from Gauff's milestone victory.
18: Gauff lost just 18 points in the 12 games of the match: eight in the first set, and 10 in the second set. But Gauff only won three of the 12 games at love, including the match's final game.
3: The 20-year-old is the third player to score a 6-0, 6-0 main-draw win at the Mutua Madrid Open: Victoria Azarenka beat Vera Dushevina by such a score in 2011, and Simona Halep won against Viktoria Hruncakova in 2019.
She's also the third player to win a 6-0, 6-0 match in any tour-level main-draw match in 2024. Aryna Sabalenka recorded the scoreline against Lesia Tsurenko in the third round of the Australian Open, and Renata Zarazua defeated wild card Mariana Isabel Higuita Barraza in the opening round in Bogota.
Moving 🔛@CocoGauff | #MMOPEN pic.twitter.com/3kt79u4aQ3
— wta (@WTA) April 25, 2024
4: The American saved all four break points she faced in the match, all of which came in the second game of the second set. That game went to deuce three times before Gauff won it.
6: Conversely, Gauff converted six of the seven break point chances she created for herself.
72: Even though Rus landed 72% of her first serves in the match, Gauff won 75% of the points played in Rus' service games.
10: Rus, 33, has now lost her last 10 matches against Top 10 opponents. She owns a career-record of 2-13 against such players, with her last win against that caliber of opposition coming against Samantha Stosur at Wimbledon in 2012.
14: In the 12 games, Gauff hit 14 winners to 10 unforced errors. On the other side, Rus hit just two winners to go along with 15 unforced errors.