Coco Gauff was knocked out of the Australian Open when she lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals.
American tennis star Coco Gauff is out from the Australian Open after losing to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (2), 6-4 in the semifinals on Thursday night. It was Gauff’s first loss of the year.
The second-seeded Sabalenka will face China’s Qinwen Zheng in the final on Saturday during Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena. Zheng beat Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska on Thursday.
She is the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 and 2017 to make it to back-to-back finals that the Australian Open.
In the second set, Sabalenka, who is 25 years old, played steadily against Gauff. She made sure to take advantage of every mistake Gauff made.
Gauff, a fourth-seed, kept her in the match by responding quickly to Sabalenka’s powerful hits. She almost won the first set after briefly leading but lost a tough tiebreaker.
Coco Gauff of Delray Beach is out of the Australian Open after losing to defending champ Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals 7-6 (2), 6-4 on Wednesday night in Melbourne. She had a lot to say about it.
Gauff, who is 19 years old, had won 12 straight majors and was trying to become the first player as Naomi Osaka in 2020-21 to capture both the U.S. Open and the Australian Open in a row.
Sabalenka will play Zheng Qinwen, who is a first-time finalist, on Saturday. Gauff was left to think about her loss while remembering how she beat Sabalenka in the U.S. Open finals last September.
After losing to Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (2), 6-4 in the semifinals of the Australian Open on Thursday, Coco Gauff made an interesting claim at the start of her press conference.
She said, “You know, I didn’t think the US Open was a good fit for me.” “Yes, I did.” I feel like I played better tonight.”
Gauff was talking about her big win over Sabalenka in the US Open final last year. She had a life-changing win that night in New York, and this night in Melbourne was a letdown, but she didn’t let her sadness stop her from seeing the truth about the two matches. She didn’t think this was a step back.
Yes, she is. Even Gauff didn’t have to do much to get Sabalenka to lose at the US Open. The world No. 2 this time showed how good she was.
This match gave us a better idea of where the American was with her game and how she compares to Sabalenka as well as the other best athletes at this stage in her career.
The first seven matches were lost, she was down 2-0 after three minutes, and she was down 2-5. But Gauff has come back against Sabalenka before and used her retrieving skills to drive her crazy, which Sabalenka clearly remembered.
When Gauff was down 2–5, Sabalenka began to overhit and overemote. Suddenly, Gauff served for the set at 6–5 and 30-0, and he was chasing down everything in sight.
After that, though, the pressure turned back on the Americans. It wasn’t a surprise that her serve or forehand, which are her two weaker shots, started to break again at that point.
At 30–15, she slowed down on a forehand out of nerves and put it in the net. Gauff didn’t make a first service in the tiebreaker after Sabalenka broke.
It was the same in the following set. Even though Sabalenka was serving at 3–4, Gauff went up 0–30, and the crowd cheered.
But Sabalenka chose to fight back and hold instead of giving up. Gauff was broken and lost one point because of a weak second serve. He also lost another point because his forehand hit the net.
“I am usually very hard on myself, so I think today that I was, like, dang. But I think that overall, this time in my life was a good one.” I think I’m tied for third with Serena Williams and Jennifer Capriati in terms of slam wins.
I saw that, and it caused me to feel bad because I always see the bad side of things. After seeing that number, I thought, “Wow, they had great careers.” I feel like I’m going in the correct direction.
I just need to focus on the journey instead of the present. I’m very proud of myself. As a teen, I was determined to win a slam, and I did (the U.S. Open last year).”