Gauff all at ‘C’ as she reaches first Aussie semi-final
COCO Gauff reached her first Australian Open semi-final playing her “C Game”.
And the US Open champion hopes her “bad match” is now out of the way before she faces red-hot defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in a blockbuster clash.
The 19-year-old American had to battle back from 5-1 down in the first set and made 56 unforced errors before overcoming world No.37 Marta Kostyuk 7-6 6-7 6-2.
World No.4 Gauff said: “It was a fight. Today was definitely a C game.
“I didn’t play my best tennis but I’m really proud that I was able to get through.
“I was not playing great. In the first set, I was just like, ‘Let me make it competitive’.
“I believe every point, every game matters, and eventually the score started to get closer. Hopefully, I have got the bad match out of the way and I can play even better.”
She has now won 12 consecutive Grand Slam matches – the most by a teenager since Maria Sharapova in 2006-07 – and will now face world No.2 Sabalenka, who has won 12 consecutive matches here.
The Belarusian swatted aside No.9 seed Barbora Krejcikova 6-2 6-3.
She said: “I played really great tennis and I just hope I can keep playing this way and even better.”
Ukrainian Kostyuk used her run to her first Major quarterfinal to bring back attention to the war in her homeland as the Russian invasion approaches a second anniversary.
And she also hoped she brought “joy and happiness” to embattled Ukraine.
She said: “It’s very exhausting to live in this state. Sport has always brought a lot of happiness for people regardless of times.
“I don’t think it changed. I think it’s the same. I got a lot of messages, a lot of support from people who have been telling me, ‘Wow, what a great tournament, such emotions, what a fight, what fighting spirit, you know, was so good to watch, like, we enjoy it so much’.
“I was texting with some people from Kyiv. I said, ‘How is it? How are you guys?’
“They said, ‘Well, we were looking between your score and where the missiles are flying’.
“So it’s still there. My parents are still there. My sister is still there. It’s still there. Still not gone.”