Gauff, Pegula win at Olympics; American women go 4-0 in singles first round

Led by Top 5 seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, American women went a perfect 4-0 in first-round singles play at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Sunday.

No.2 seed Gauff won her first-ever Olympic singles match, toppling Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-0 in 57 minutes in the evening session on Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros.

Reigning US Open champion Gauff missed out on the 2021 Tokyo games due to illness, but she is flourishing thus far in Paris. Gauff was Team USA's flagbearer alongside basketball star LeBron James in Friday's opening ceremony.

Gauff followed up on Saturday by teaming with Pegula to win their first-round doubles match as the No.1 seeds. Now she can add her debut singles win at an Olympic Games to her incredible weekend.

Former Top 40 player Tomljanovic twice came back from a break down in the early stages of the first set, but Gauff cranked a forehand winner down the line to regain her advantage at 5-3. A love hold followed, giving Gauff the one-set lead.

Gauff eased through the second set with minimal fuss, winning the last eight games of the match in total. Gauff broke Tomljanovic’s serve six times en route to the win.

Next up for Gauff will be a second-round meeting with Argentina’s Maria Lourdes Carle, who routed Germany’s Tatjana Maria 6-0, 6-0 on Sunday.

Gauff and Carle have never met as professionals, but Gauff went 2-0 against Carle during their junior days, notching wins at the 2017 Junior US Open and 2018 Junior Wimbledon.

Pegula prevails: Earlier on Sunday, No.5 seed Pegula earned her first career Olympic singles win with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic.

In her 2021 Olympic debut, Pegula lost in the first round of singles as an unseeded player -- but she was defeated on that occasion by Belinda Bencic, who went all the way and won the gold medal in Tokyo.

Now a Top 10 regular, Pegula fired 30 winners on Sunday to take a 2-0 head-to-head lead over Golubic, who is a recent Olympic medalist. Golubic teamed with fellow Swiss Bencic to claim the silver medal in women's doubles at 2021 Tokyo.

Pegula fought back from 3-1 down in the clash, sweeping five games in a row to take the one-set lead. The first set was epitomized by a perfect game at 4-3, where Pegula hit four straight successful service returns to break at love.

More solid returning gave Pegula a 3-0, double-break lead in the second set, but Golubic found deft passing shots and slices to keep the second set competitive. Pegula needed five match points before sealing victory after 1 hour and 16 minutes.

In the second round, Pegula will take on another recent Olympic medalist, Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. Svitolina, the Tokyo 2021 bronze medalist in singles, defeated Moyuka Uchijima of Japan 6-2, 6-1 on Sunday. Pegula has a 4-1 head-to-head lead over Svitolina.

Collins, Navarro advance: No.8 seed Danielle Collins joined her fellow Americans in the second round. Collins advanced on Sunday after Laura Siegemund of Germany retired from their first-round match at 6-3, 2-0.

Collins is making her Olympic debut in her final year on tour. She surged back into the Top 10 this year on the back of a 15-match winning streak this spring, which included consecutive titles at WTA 1000 Miami and WTA 500 Charleston.

No.11 seed Emma Navarro completed the quartet of American opening-round wins on Sunday. Navarro beat Austria's Julia Grabher 6-2, 6-0 in an evening match.

Navarro has had a breakthrough year which finds her sitting at a career-high ranking of World No.15. This month marks the first time in 20 years that five American women are placed inside the Top 15 of the PIF WTA Singles Rankings.