For the third year in a row, Coco Gauff has started the season on fire. The No.3 seed improved to a perfect 8-0 in 2025 with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Leylah Fernandez in the Australian Open third round, advancing to the second week of a major for the 14th time.

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Gauff also won her first eight matches in 2023, taking the Auckland title and going on to the Australian Open fourth round. She went two better in 2024, defending Auckland and then making her first semifinal in Melbourne. She began 2025 by going undefeated at the United Cup -- starting with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Fernandez -- to help Team USA lift the trophy. Gauf is currently on a 10-match winning streak overall, dating back to her WTA Finals Riyadh triumph at the end of 2024.

Gauff's 8-0 hat-trick puts her in good company. She is just the fifth player in the Open Era to achieve the feat, following Margaret Court (1969-73), Stefanie Graf (1987-90 and 1994-96), Monica Seles (1991-93) and Serena Williams (2003-05).

The result sets up a fourth-round encounter for the 2023 US Open champion against former Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic, who advanced via retirement over Naomi Osaka. Gauff and Bencic have split two previous meetings, with Bencic winning in three sets in the 2021 Adelaide semifinals and Gauff turning the tables in the 2023 Washington quarterfinals.

Head to Head

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How the match was won: Gauff's two defeats of Fernandez this season were the pair's first meetings since their junior days, and she has yet to drop a set to the Canadian at any level. Afterward, she said that playing Fernandez so recently had made her job tougher.

"[It's] harder because she knows what to expect, and I definitely think she played a little bit differently," she said in her on-court interview. "You're trying to change up what you did last time because she's expecting it."

There were moments of vulnerability on Friday. The Gauff forehand was a weakness early on, and contributed 13 of her 17 unforced errors in the first set. When seemingly cruising in the second up a double break, she coughed up consecutive double faults to lose one of the breaks, and two more in her next service game.

Gauff was quick to shrug these blips off, and Fernandez was slow to take advantage. Though the 2021 US Open finalist was occasionally able to out-manoeuvre Gauff with sharp angles, she was unable to solve her propensity to over-press, particularly in longer exchanges.

Though the pair won an equal number of points lasting four shots or fewer -- 26 apiece -- Gauff won 17 of the points lasting five to eight shots, compared to Fernandez's 10. The American was even more dominant when rallies extended to nine shots or more, taking 18 of those points compared to Fernandez's six.

By the end of the match, Gauff was in full flow once again, reeling off a series of sweet backhand winners to serve the match out with minimal fuss.

More to come...