Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek dedicate Australian Open wins to Los Angeles

Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek used their first-round victories at the Australian Open to send messages of support to California amid the devastating wildfires.

American Gauff wrote ‘Stay strong LA. Thank you firefighters’ on the camera lens after her 6-3 6-3 victory over Sofia Kenin, while Swiatek put ‘Sending my love to Malibu and LA’.

Huge amounts of damage has already been caused around Los Angeles and lives lost, with the threat of more to come.

Gauff is the leading American hope in the tournament and her victory over compatriot and former Australian Open champion Kenin made it 10 wins in a row, taking in titles at the WTA Finals and the United Cup.

The third seed, who next faces Britain’s Jodie Burrage, hopes the win can herald a positive tournament for her.

“When I saw the draw, I was like, ‘It’s not a great first round’,” said Gauff, who lost to Kenin in the first round at Wimbledon two years ago.

“She’s one of those people that she can play great tennis. She’s obviously won this tournament before, but, I just think of the positives of, if you get through that, then you kind of have set the tone for having a high level throughout the tournament.”

One of Gauff’s wins at the United Cup came against Swiatek, but the Pole has also had a strong start to the season and she avoided any real alarms in a 6-3 6-4 win over Czech Katerina Siniakova.

Seventh seed Jessica Pegula took exactly an hour to beat young Australian wild card Maya Joint 6-3 6-0, while there was a triumphant return to grand slam tennis for former Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic.

The Swiss gave birth to daughter Bella in April and missed all four major tournaments last year, but Bencic wasted no time making her mark again, defeating 16th seed Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 7-6 (6).

There was also defeat for two-time former champion Victoria Azarenka, who lost 6-2 7-6 (2) to Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti.