Latest Sports Update : Coco Gauff lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open quarterfinals on Thursday, ending her hopes of winning two consecutive grand slam championships.
In Rod Laver Arena, defending champion Sabalenka won 7-6(7-2) 6-4 to capture her 13th straight victory at Melbourne Park.
The 19-year-old Gauff earned her first major victory in a close repeat of last year’s US Open final, where the world No. 2 gained control of the match with a break at 4-4 in the second set before serving out.
After defeating Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine 6-4 6-4, Sabalenka will now play Zheng Qinwen in Saturday’s grand slam final. Zheng Qinwen is the 12th seed from China and has never appeared in a grand slam final.
American Gauff entered the match with a 10-0 record, hence this was her first loss of 2024.
Reporters were told by Sabalenka that the match was amazing. She’s a fantastic player, and I always have a hard time against her.
“I believe the secret was that I managed to maintain my focus regardless of the situation or the outcome; I just kept giving it my all and never gave up.”Naturally, I’m overjoyed to be in another grand slam final. I’m hoping to perform marginally better than I did previously.
The two best-ranked players remaining in the draw battled in a close first set, with Sabalenka appearing to have the advantage on many times, but Gauff managed to hang on while under pressure from the strong groundstrokes of the Belarusian.
With two unintentional errors and a double fault, Sabalenka was unable to serve out of the opening set at 5-3, but Gauff was equally unable to take advantage of her advantage when serving for the set at 6-5.
With a string of enormous forehands in the next tie-break, Sabalenka began to find her range and won the opening set when Gauff’s return sailed wide.
The second set was equally matched as well, but this time neither player was able to find the crucial break.
That was only until Sabalenka’s fifth break point of the set, when a backhand from Gauff went wide, giving her the breakthrough. From that point on, she won in an hour and forty-two minutes.
This was the 25-year-old’s first victory over a player ranked in the top four at a major, according to ESPN.
She became the first woman to make it to the Australian Open finals twice in a row since Serena Williams in 2017 as she finished the match with 33 winners and 76% accuracy on her first serve.
Gauff, who was competing in her maiden Melbourne semifinal, described the entire experience of her campaign as “positive.”
“She played better tonight, but I had opportunities in both sets. I thought I used my game plan to its fullest potential. After the game, she remarked, “I think it just came down to a couple of points, and that’s tennis.”