American veteran Serena Williams sensationally crashed out but 15-year-old Coco Gauff went through as tennis got a glimpse of its past and future at the Australian Open on Friday.
Williams' bid for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam was halted by the unlikely figure of China's Wang Qiang, who triumphed in three tough sets—after winning just one game when they played at the US Open in September.
Gauff then stepped up her giant-killing Melbourne debut as she ousted Japanese defending champion Naomi Osaka, 22, in dismissive style, winning 6-3, 6-4 in just 67 minutes to reach round four.
"Oh my gosh. Two years ago I lost first round in the juniors and now I'm here—this is crazy," said the teenager, who upset Venus Williams in the first round.
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With Williams now 38, 23 years older than Gauff, the two players are at opposite ends of their careers.
And with Williams' close friend Caroline Wozniacki retiring on Friday, after defeat to Ons Jabeur, it looked like a changing of the guard.
"I feel it's the best I have played this summer so far." Gauff, who trained with Serena Williams in the off-season, had promised she would be less nervous than in her last meeting with Osaka, when she was thrashed in round three of last year's US Open.
And so it proved as the teenager broke once in the first set and twice in the second to floor a rattled Osaka and ramp up a rivalry that could run and run.
In the men's draw, reigning champion Novak Djokovic thrashed Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the round of 16 at a canter.
Former US Open champion Marin Cilic, 31, outlasted Robert Bautista Agut in five tough sets and Tennys Sandgren, under fire during his last deep run in Melbourne over links to right-wing activists, beat fellow American Sam Querrey in straight sets.
