Daria Gavrilova has taken her winning streak to six after winning her first ever main-draw match at the US Open on Wednesday.
New York, NY, USA, 31 August 2017 | Darren Walton (AAP)
Gavrilova extended her hardcourt winning streak to six matches with a 6-2 6-1 rout of Allie Kiick to join Ashleigh Barty, Arina Rodionova and Ajla Tomljanovic as first-round winners.
It’s the first time four Australian women have progressed to the second round at Flushing Meadows since 1986.
“It’s nice that everyone got a win, all the girls, so we’re all supporting each other, which is always helpful,” Gavrilova said.
Fresh off her WTA title breakthrough in New Haven on Sunday, Gavrilova lived up to her new-found status as an Open dark horse with a clinical display on the Grandstand court.
The 25th seed needed exactly an hour to see off the world No.634, breaking Kiick seven times and dropping serve only once in recording her first victory in New York since winning the junior crown in 2010.
“It was great to get a win. It’s obviously nice to get it done in an hour. I played pretty aggressive. It was a quick one,” Gavrilova said.
“I didn’t think too much of what happened last week. I was just focused on what I had to do today. I played okay, a pretty solid first-round match, but I can still improve.”
Gavrilova will return on Friday to play another American, world No.62 Shelby Rogers, a surprise French Open quarterfinalist last year.
“She’s obviously going to have home support and I know this girl pretty well. It’s obviously going to be challenging,” said Australia’s female No.1.
“She’s got a pretty big game but I’m just going to get out there and do what I have to do.”
Not since the days when Wendy Turnbull, Liz Minter and Liz Smylie were prominent in Grand Slam draws in the 1980s has Australia enjoyed such a promising start to the Open.
Turnbull, Minter and Smylie, along with Jenny Byrne and Amanda Tobin all made it past the first round in New York 31 years ago.