The American nugget Coco Gauff, 6th in the world at 19, took only 1:08 on Tuesday to beat the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (21st) 6-0, 6-2 and thus qualify for her first semi-final of the US Open . “It’s great, I’m so happy… Last year I lost in the quarter-finals so this year I wanted to do better. But the road is not over!” said Gauff. She has already played a Grand Slam final at Roland-Garros in 2022 and will face the Romanian Sorana Cirstea (30th) or the Czech Karolina Mouchova (10th) on Thursday for a place in the final of the American Major.
On Tuesday, Gauff completely suffocated Ostapenko, winner of the 2017 Roland-Garros and who created a sensation in the round of 16 in New York on Sunday by eliminating defending champion Iga Swiatek. Faced with Gauff, she multiplied the unforced errors (36 against 14 for her opponent). The 26-year-old Latvian lost the first seven games of the game before stopping the bleeding… on Gauff’s serve.
But as the sweltering heat descended on Flushing Meadows, Gauff resumed his inexorable advance towards the semi-finals. She served for the match at 5-2 and concluded on her third match point. “It’s very hard to play against her because it’s difficult to be aggressive. So I tried to be aggressive whenever I could, but most of the time I was mostly trying to play long,” Gauff explained. “It’s by far my shortest match of the tournament,” she said, explaining that she would see with her coach if she was going to rest or do a training session during the day.
Gauff is also qualified for the quarter-finals of the doubles tournament with her compatriot Jessica Pegula.
