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Coco Gauff maintained her unbeaten season, scoring her 10th consecutive victory (complete with victory at the ASB Classic) and qualifying for the semi-finals of the Australian Open 2024. The 19 year old from Atlanta defeated Marta Kostyuk in three exciting sets, eliminating her with the final score of 76(6) 67(3) 62, after a battle of over three, played in extreme weather conditions, under a powerful heat wave.
Coco, who had destroyed all her opponents until the quarter-final, took a huge risk against Kostyuk, managing to prevail in the third set.See you in the semis 👏@cocogauff outlasts Kostyuk 7-6(6) 6-7(3) 6-2 and is still unbeaten in 2024! #AusOpen • #AO2024 pic.twitter.com/i2PP7Tqoyz — #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2024
Coco also extended her Slams winning streak to 12 consecutive wins, starting with the 2023 edition of the US Open. Gauff wins her 3rd Slam semifinal in her career after those reached at the Roland Garros 2022 and at the US Open 2023.
In the previous two, she has always reached the fina. Now she is waiting to find out who her next opponent will be, who will come out of the match between Barbora Krejcikova or Aryna Sabalenka.
The match
First set full of errors and fighting.
Kostyuk started by canceling two break points, while Coco held her first serve more easily. The American also had her chances in the third game, but she was unable to materialize them. But contrary to popular belief, Kostyuk got two breaks, erasing three in a row in the fifth game.
Coco cancels a set point at 2-5 and gets three breaks in a row: this time it's her turn, at 6-5, to serve for the set, but she gets back into the match at 6-6. Coco won the tie-break 7-6(6) in 76 minutes.
The second set is played along the lines of the first, with errors on both sides balanced by exceptional play.The Great Wall of Coco 🎾@cocogauff • #AusOpen • #AO2024@wwos • @espn • @eurosport • @wowowtennis pic.twitter.com/atTliMI0EE — #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2024
The natural epilogue? Obviously a second tie-break, won this time by Kostyuk. The third set goes as it should go. Kostuyk felt the weight of the physical and psychological fatigue of the first two sets: all the efforts made collapsed in front of the athletic freshness and technical superiority of her opponent, who demolished the Ukrainian tennis player 6-2, in the third set, winning the semi-final of the Australian Open.