Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Elena Svitolina Knocked Coco Gough out of australian open Semifinals with the world’s No. 1 Alina Sabalenka The American serve collapsed in brutal fashion.
Ukrainian 12th seed Svitolina defeated Gauff 6-1, 6-2 in just 59 minutes to reach the Australian Open semi-finals for the first time, but her direct counterattack caused Gauff’s game to malfunction.
The 21-year-old double-faulted five times in the first set and didn’t hold serve until the sixth game. As Gauff improved, Svitolina once scored 12 points in the second set.
The French Open champion looked frustrated as her mistakes kept piling up and unless she fought back from 3-0 down in the second set, the score could have been much worse.
After leaving Rod Laver Arena, Backstage camera footage captured by Goughwalking alone, stopped to repeatedly slam the racket onto a concrete ramp.
The statistics are equally grim for the world’s third-ranked player, with just three winners and 26 unforced errors. As her game began to unravel, Goff’s team suggested she just hit the ball into the center of the court.
“We all have bad days in the office,” said TNT Sports’ Tim Henman. “But I think in terms of being the favorite in this match, she’s a Grand Slam champion, she’s won the French Open, she’s won the U.S. Open, she’s No. 3 in the world. I mean, it was an astounding performance. There were no two ways about it and Svitolina just took advantage of that.
“But when you have a top player who can really only play one shot and then make so many mistakes at the back, your game assets are completely stripped away right in front of our eyes. It’s really ugly to watch.”
Svitolina, meanwhile, reached her first Australian Open semi-final at the age of 31 and only her second Grand Slam semi-final since returning to tennis in 2023 after becoming the mother of daughter Skye in 2022.
The result also means she will return to the top ten in the world, having decided to shorten her season last September due to fatigue and burnout.
“I’m really happy with the race so far. It’s always been a dream of mine to come back here after maternity leave. It’s been a dream of mine to get back into the top ten. It’s always been my goal.
“Unfortunately it didn’t happen last year. I stopped after September. When we were training in the offseason, I told my coach I still wanted to get back to the top 10, so that’s my goal for this year.”
Sabalenka is trying to regain her Australian Open title after losing to Madison Keys in last year’s final. Ending run for American teenager Eva Jovich A 6-3 6-0 win earlier in the day.