21-year-old and next to legends already: Coco Gauff starts Australian Open 2026 with historic win

Most people do not know what to do in life when they are 21 but not Coco Gauff. The American tennis player, who already has two grand slams to her name, has wrote herself in another piece of history. Gauff, who won her R1 match in Australian Open 2026 women's singles 6-2, 6-3 vs Kamilla Rakhimova on Monday (Jan 19) at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park, now has 75 win grand slam tournaments. She is only the fourth womeen's player to achieve the milestone and the youngest in nearly last two decades. Apart from Gauff, other players in the list are legends Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and most recently Maria Sharapova in 2008.

Gauff keeps histroy writers busy

Gauff won her 75th women's single match in a grand slam at 21 years and 311 days, making her 11th youngest player to acheive the milestone since open era started in 1968. Before Gauff, who is behind Chris Evert on all time list, Sharapova had acheived it in Australian Open 2026 aged 20 years and 270 days. The win was also Gauff's 250th at tour-level - making her again, the youngest, to reach the mark since Caroline Wozniacki in 2011.

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With two more matches left to complete 100 appearance in women's singles in grand slams, Gauff also has a shot at becoming the player with third most wins in her first 100 major matches. With 75 wins in 98 matches she onnly trails Pam Shriver (76), Serena Williams (86), and Chris Evert (90) for most wins in first 100 grand slam matches.

Gauff vs Rakhimova R1 Australian Open 2026 match summary

Gauff (7) did three more double faults than Rakhimova but won more points (74), games (12), service points (37), and receiving points (37) than her opponent. Seeded number three behind Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, Gauff next plays Olga Danilovic in R2 on Wednesday (Jan 21).