Gauff to play Sabalenka in semis
Djokovic and Sinner to meet in next round
MELBOURNE, Australia — Coco Gauff hopes she’s got her “bad” match out of the way at the Australian Open before meeting defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals.
It’ll be a rematch of the U.S. Open final, which the 19-year-old Gauff won in three sets for her first major title.
Gauff is on a 12-match winning roll at the majors after rallying from 5-1 down in the first set to beat Marta Kostyuk 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 6-2 in a quarterfinal that lasted more than three hours.
Sabalenka is on a 12-match streak at Melbourne Park after her 6-2, 6-3 win over No. 9-seeded Barbora Krejcikova in the first match of the night session that didn’t start until after 9 p.m.
“I love it. I love it,” Sabalenka said of the showdown with Gauff. “After U.S. Open, I really wanted that revenge, and, I mean, that’s a great match.”
Gauff’s long three-setter had a knock-on effect that made for a long night at Melbourne Park. It took Novak Djokovic 3 3/4 hours to hold off Taylor Fritz 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 and reach the Australian Open semifinals for the 11th time.
Sabalenka’s match started at 9:09 p.m. and the last men’s match, No. 4 Jannik Sinner against No. 5 Andrey Rublev, didn’t start until 10:42 p.m.
After winning her first major here last year, Sabalenka reached the semifinals at the French Open and Wimbledon before her run to the final in New York, finishing the year ranked No. 2.
In five rounds so far, she has dropped just 16 games and been on court for a total of 5 1/4 hours.
“I played great tennis,” Sabalenka said after beating Krejcikova, the 2021 French Open champion.
Gauff hadn’t dropped a set until she faced No. 37-ranked Kostyuk, who ripped 39 winners but also made 56 unforced errors in a relentlessly attacking game.
“Today was definitely a C game,” Gauff said. “Didn’t play my best tennis but really proud that I was able to get through. Hopefully got the bad match out of the way and I can play even better.”
Gauff had 51 unforced errors, nine double-faults and had just 17 winners in a match containing 16 service breaks.
On Wednesday afternoon (late Tuesday night in the United States), Dayana Yastremska reached her first Grand Slam singles semifinal after beating Linda Noskova 6-3, 6-4 at the Australian Open.
The 93rd-ranked Ukrainian, who had to qualify for the main draw, wrapped up the victory in 78 minutes as she set up a match with either 12th-ranked Zheng Qinwen or Anna Kalinskaya in the last four.
MEN’S: Nobody has ever been better at this end of the Australian Open than Novak Djokovic, the 10-time champion.
Every time he’s won a quarterfinal at Melbourne Park — as he did against Taylor Fritz on Tuesday — he’s gone on to win the title.
The odds are usually stacked against his semifinal rival. Perhaps even more so against fourth-seeded Jannik Sinner, who won a quarterfinal over No. 5 Andrey Rublev that didn’t start until 10:42 p.m. and didn’t finish until 1:21 a.m. Wednesday.
Djokovic reached his record-extending 48th Grand Slam semifinal by beating Fritz 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in 3 3/4 hours. Their match started late in the heat of the afternoon because Gauff’s preceding win took more than three hours.
In an on-court interview with Australian player Nick Kyrgios, who has been sidelined by a longterm injury, Djokovic made a light-hearted joke about getting popcorn and watching Sinner vs. Rublev on late-night TV.
Later, Djokovic said Sinner’s late finish wouldn’t be a factor in Friday’s semifinals.
“What kind of advantage will I have? We have two days. It’s not much of an advantage that I see there,” he said. “Plenty of time for whoever wins that match tonight to recover.”
The start of the night session was pushed back past 9 p.m. and could have gone very, very late if not for women’s champion Aryna Sabalenka and Sinner both winning in straight sets.
Sinner was down 5-1 in the second-set tiebreaker before winning six straight points, starting with a stunning crosscourt forehand, to turn momentum and take the match 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3.