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Coco Gauff posted a resounding 6-4, 7-5 win over Karolina Muchova in their semi-final at the US Open on Thursday evening. The 19-year-old American took two hours and three minutes to end the proceedings. Both Gauff and Muchova had posted one-sided victories in their respective quarter-finals.
Gauff had taken down 20th seed Jelena Ostapenko 6-0, 6-2 while Muchova had proven to be quite superior on-court against Sorana Cirstea, en route to claiming a 6-0, 6-3 win. In their semi-final, however, while Gauff’s intensity didn’t fade away, Muchova looked like a completely different player between the first match and the second.
US Open: Steady does it for Coco Gauff
Gauff raced away to a 5-1 lead for herself in the opening set before the 10th seed showed signs of resisting her dominance in the proceedings. In the sixth game of the set, while trying to serve for a lead in the match, three consecutive errors from Gauff handed one of the two breaks back to Muchova.
The next three games also went the Czech’s way with Gauff failing to bring up set points while serving for the set for a second time, in the ninth game. Eventually, with a chance to level the set at five-all, Muchova’s serve broke down once again and three errors later, Gauff bagged the set on the first of the three set points she raised.
The second set was much closer as Muchova controlled her shots better as compared to the first set to keep herself within sight of her opponent. The set remained on serve until the eighth game when Gauff finally got her first chance to outplay Muchova and take a lead in the match.
In the ninth game, Gauff even had a match point on her serve to close out the match but lost her serve to hand the break back to her opponent. As in the first, Muchova’s game once again showed signs of revival as she consolidated the break back and pushed the set to five-all.
She wasn’t, however, able to break Gauff’s serve in the 11th game that would’ve allowed her to serve for the set. Instead, in the 12th game, Muchova once again found herself trying her best to push the match into the tie-break.
A couple of errors in that game brought up two more match points for the sixth seed but she was thwarted yet again. Two additional match points came and went before Gauff and Muchova played the rally of the match. Corner-to-corner, forwards and backwards, the two toyed with each other for 40 shots before Gauff struck a winner off her forehand to bring up her sixth match point.
Muchova wasn’t able to save it this time as an unforced error brought an end to her time in the match. Gauff’s ability to keep going for her shots was quite riveting to watch. On the other hand, it felt as though Muchova had left a lot to do towards the end, in both sets and she came up short, in both of them.
The world no. 6 finished the match with two fewer winners than Muchova’s 15 and 13 fewer unforced errors than the latter’s 36. Looking to cap off a successful North American swing at the US Open and win the first Major of her career, Coco Gauff will play Aryna Sabalenka in the final.