Coco Gauff glides into semi-finals of rainlashed Auckland Classic
Coco Gauff moved into the semi-finals of the Auckland Tennis Classic on Friday with a 6-1, 6-1 win for the the US Open champion against Varvara Gracheva of France on a rainy quarter-finals day.
The top-seeded player and defending champion needed only 24 minutes to win the first set and took the match in just eight minutes short of an hour. Gauff has not dropped a set at the tournament and did not drop a set in winning the tournament last year.
Rain delayed the start of the match and was threatening at the end. But Gauff rushed to victory with dark clouds gathering, sending down five aces.
“I thought I served really well, probably the best so far at this tournament which is something I was really working on in the off-season,” Gauff said. “Last year there was a lot more rain so I was glad I was able to finish my match.”
Gauff will play her fellow American Emma Navarro in the semi-finals after the fourth seed beat Petra Martic of France 6-4, 6-3. Navarro lost to Martic 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 when the pair met in Cincinnati in August, but she turned the tables with an authoritative display, putting 80% of first serves in play and attacking Martic, particularly on her second serve. China’s Wang Xiyu beat Diane Parry of France 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4 in another quarter-final which lasted three hours and eight minutes of court time but longer in terms of running time because of rain.
The second-seeded Elena Rybakina only needed to play seven games in her quarter-final Friday to reach the final four at the Brisbane International but the two-time champion Victoria Azarenka had a tougher run. She needed three sets, lasting about two and a half hours, and joked about the prospect of having to wear protective headwear to advance 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 at the expense of the 2017 French Open winner, Jelena Ostapenko, the No 3 seed.
Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, won the first set 6-1 before the 11th-seeded Anastasia Potapova re
tired from their match with an abdominal injury. Rybakina will next play Linda Noskova or Mirra Andreeva.
Azarenka, who won back-to-back Australian Open titles in 2012 and 2013, clinched her victory in a tense match three games after an emotional outburst from Ostapenko at the chair umpire, Julie Kjendlie. “With Jelena, sometimes you just have to put on a helmet and try to stay in there,” the Belarusian said. “She’s an incredible player and a grand slam champion, and she’s proved many times she can beat anybody on any given day. The quality of tennis was incredible, so to be able to go through … I’m very proud.”
Azarenka will face either her topseeded compatriot Aryna Sabalenka, the defending Australian Open champion, or the fifth-seeded Daria Kasatkina.
The men’s top seed, Holger Rune, had a 6-2, 7-6 (6) win over James Duckworth to move into a semi-final against
Roman Safiullin, who beat Matteo Arnaldi 7-6 (4), 6-2.
Grigor Dimitrov had a 6-1, 6-4 win over Rinky Hijikata to also reach the semi-finals. The No 2 seed could next face Rafael Nadal, who will be aiming to extend his comeback tournament from a year-long injury layoff when he meets the Australian Jordan Thompson
in a quarter-final nightcap on Pat Rafter Arena. The 22-time major winner has had straight-sets wins over Dominic Thiem and Jason Kubler in his first two competitive matches since the 2023 Australian Open.
tered the mystique of trust that had always been there with the Warriors.”
“I don’t think anything is ever the same since that leak.”
At the end of the day, as the Warriors
learned, players and teams only have so much control. In a world where anything that happens in previously private spaces can become public information, where any piece of information can become “content,” and where any piece of content can become monetizable on social media platforms driven by information-obsessed fans, celebrities including NBA players are only going to have a more difficult time staying out of the limelight going forward. It probably isn’t fair, but it’s the reality. And the sooner they get used to it, the better.
“It’s a strange world that we live in,” Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker says. “Especially with social media, you know, it’s changed right in front of our eyes.”
“And I think none of us really know how to control it.”
• This article was amended on 5 January 2024. An error introduced during editing led an earlier version to mistakenly refer to Nikola Jokić as the reigning NBA MVP. Jokić won the award in 2021 and 2022.