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Svitolina stuns Gauff in 59 minutes to sail into Australian Open semis / Photo: Martin KEEP - AFP
NYSE - LSE
Svitolina stuns Gauff in 59 minutes to sail into Australian Open semis
Elina Svitolina stunned American third seed Coco Gauff to sail into an Australian Open semi-final against Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday and inch closer to a maiden Grand Slam title.
The Ukrainian 12th seed kept her dreams alive with a 6-1, 6-2 demolition in 59 minutes under a closed roof on Rod Laver Arena, with Gauff's serve imploding.
Svitolina's reward is a clash with imperious world number one Sabalenka, after the Belarusian overpowered teenager Iva Jovic for the loss of just three games.
A decade older than Gauff at 31, former world number three Svitolina was playing her 14th Grand Slam quarter-final.
She had managed to press on to the semis only three times before, and never in Australia.
"Very, very pleased with the tournament so far," said Svitolina, who is on a 10-match win streak after a title-winning run at Auckland this month.
Making the semi-finals will propel her back into the top 10.
"It's always been my dream to come back after maternity leave to make the top 10. Always been my goal," she said.
"It means the world to me. And of course I try to push myself, I try to give myself this motivation to continue. Very pleased with the performance at this tournament in Australia."
Two-time Grand Slam champion Gauff's serve deserted her, broken four times in the first set and twice in the second to leave her title aspirations in tatters.
She won just 41 percent of her first service points, while throwing in 19 unforced errors.
Gauff suffered from serving issues all tournament and was broken immediately.
Svitolina, with husband Gael Monfils watching on, failed to capitalise and conceded her serve as well, but Gauff then sent down two double faults at crucial moments to be broken yet again.
Clearly flustered, she was broken for third time, to love, as the Ukrainian raced to 5-1 with a fifth double fault of the match gifting Svitolina another break and the set in 29 minutes.
Gauff summoned a ball kid and asked for three racquets to be restrung, and left the court for a toilet break after the first set annihilation.
But it didn't help, broken for a fifth straight time to open set two.
She finally managed to hold on her sixth attempt, but there was no way back.
It is the first time Svitolina has reached the last four in Melbourne after quarter-final runs in 2018, 2019 and 2025.
She has made the semi-finals at Slams three times previously, most recently at Wimbledon in 2023.
(K.Lee--TAG)
