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Coco Gauff persevered through her toughest test at the 2024 Australian Open, outlasting Marta Kostyuk in a laborious three-setter.
The American No. 1 took on Kostyuk on January 23 in the first women's quarterfinal. Neither player was at her best, and they both made plenty of errors throughout the match.
The first set witnessed six breaks of serve and went into a tiebreaker, with Gauff clinching it. The second set unfolded similarly, but this time, Kostyuk took the tiebreaker to level the scoreline.
Gauff regrouped in the deciding set and raced to a 5-0 lead. Despite Kostyuk's efforts to peg the score back a bit, the World No. 4 won the three-hour, eight-minute contest, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 6-2. The American hit a paltry 17 winners and made a mammoth 51 unforced errors in the match.
Coco Gauff was over the moon after surviving the tough encounter that tested her mental strength. After greeting Kostyuk and the chair umpire, the American celebrated her maiden Australian Open semifinal appearance by showing off some dance moves on the court.
Gauff's dance delighted the crowd on Rod Laver Arena, who roared in approval when she was done. The video of the incident can be seen below:
Coco Gauff to face Aryna Sabalenka or Barbora Krejcikova in Australian Open SF
Coco Gauff, seeded No. 4 in Melbourne, had a smooth ride until her quarterfinal match. She had bettered Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, Caroline Dolehide, Alycia Parks, and Magdalena Frech in straight sets.
After coming through against Kostyuk in the last eight, Gauff will face either defending champion Aryna Sabalenka or Barbora Krejcikova in the semifinals. Gauff defeated Sabalenka in the final of the 2023 US Open to lift her maiden Grand Slam title.
The American has faced Krejcikova once on the WTA Tour. The Czech star bettered Gauff in the quarterfinal of the 2021 French Open.
With her qualification into the Australian Open semifinal, Coco Gauff has now reached the semi-finals of three out of the four Majors. While she was a finalist at the French Open in 2022, her best performances at the Wimbledon Championships have been fourth-round appearances in 2019 and 2021.
The young American has now won 10 straight matches in 2024. She defended her title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, earlier this year.
