US Open top seeds Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff through to second round at Flushing Meadows
By
SABC Sport
27th August 2025
Second seed Iga Swiatek's sublime summer continued with a record-breaking opening-round victory at the US Open on Tuesday.
Playing in her first singles match since last week's Cincinnati Open triumph, world No. 2 Swiatek wasted little time in a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over Emiliana Arango.
It took exactly an hour for the 24-year-old to seal victory inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium, striking an impressive 26 winners to just 14 unforced errors, and breaking her opponent on four occasions.
Swiatek enters the US Open as many people's pick to win the title, as she looks to win her seventh Grand Slam title and second title in New York after her triumph at this event back in 2022.
The Pole received a wave of support during her run to the title three years ago, and revealed during Tuesday's on-court post-match interview that she revelled in the atmosphere inside tennis' biggest stadium.
"Yeah, Polish fans are kind of everywhere," said Swiatek.
"It's super nice to feel the support always. They're coming kind of around the world too, every place I play. It's great, but I also really appreciate people that come from different countries.
"I feel every year it's more. I just hope they'll enjoy my game."
Swiatek's statement win will make plenty of headlines, though she has now broken a stunning record previously held by tennis icon Monica Seles.
Victory for the world No. 2 was her 65th consecutive win in opening matches at WTA-level events, breaking Seles' previous record streak of 64 such wins.
Meanwhile, Gauff struggled on serve during her first-round match against Ajla Tomljanovic as she served 10 double faults, including on match point, before eventually winning 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 7-5 in nearly two hours.
The American also made 59 unforced errors to go with 29 winners and she admitted: "Yeah, it was a tough match. I had chances for it to be straight sets. Ajla was tough. It wasn't the best, but I'm happy to get through to the next round."
The 21-year-old added: "I had so many chances and [I knew] eventually it was going to come. I had chances to close out in two, I had chances to go up a double break so many times, so yeah I was just like 'eventually one of these are going to go my way and it ended up happening."
There is no doubt that the partnership with Gavin MacMillan needs time as he is hoping to change her service motion and there were already some obvious changes during the match against 2022 US Open quarter-finalist Tomljanovic, who was always going to be a tricky opponent.
There was a noticeable drop in the speed of Gauff's serves early during the match before she started to pick it up during the second set as well as the third set.
Before the tournament, the American admitted "I needed to make a change, technical change to it, and I don't want to waste time continuing doing the wrong things".
The process to change is underway, and for no,w she has to take the positives with the negatives.
Up next is Donna Vekic, who also needed three sets to overcome Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, and Gauff and MacMillan will hope for further improvements.
