Jodie Burrage took the fight to Coco Gauff before falling to a second-round loss at the Australian Open.
The 25-year-old Briton won only two games the last time the pair met on grass in 2023 but she threatened to take the game’s form player to a deciding set before going down 6-3 7-5.
Burrage missed most of last season with wrist and ankle injuries and vowed to enjoy the experience of playing on one of the biggest courts in the world.
After a nervy start at the Rod Laver Arena, that was exactly what she did, showing her best tennis and really troubling third seed Gauff.
From 3-1 down in the second set, Burrage won four games in a row and served to force a decider, but Gauff hit back to reach round three.
Burrage has experience of playing on Centre Court at Wimbledon and Louis Armstrong Stadium at the US Open and she looked around at Rod Laver Arena as she walked out.
It threatened to be a quick evening when Gauff took a 3-0 lead, and Burrage gave a relieved look to her coaching team after holding serve from 15-40 in the next game.
From there, Burrage began to play better and better, taking the initiative at every opportunity and forcing Gauff onto the back foot.
The American moved a set and a break up but Burrage broke serve twice in a row. She could not serve out the set at 5-3, though, and successive double faults gave Gauff another break at 5-5.
“It was tough, she was serving really well,” the former US Open champion said. “I was just trying to manage that.
“She really stepped her level up in the middle of the second set. I was just trying to be offensive when I could. When I landed anything short, she was hitting a winner.”
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