Her round of 16 victory against defending champion Iga Swiatek had raised false hopes: Jelena Ostapenko, 21st player in the world, lost heavily to American nugget Coco Gauff (6-0, 6-2) Tuesday, September 5, in the quarterfinals of the US Open.
The 6th player in the world will face in the semi-finals the Czech Karolina Muchova (10?), who won against the Romanian Sorana Cirstea (30?) 6-0, 6-3. Muchova and Gauff will experience their first semi-final together in the Flushing Meadows tournament.
The darling of the New York public, Coco Gauff left no chance for Ostapenko, who explained that he had failed to recover from the match against Swiatek. The 26-year-old Latvian multiplied the unforced errors (36 against 14 for her opponent) and lost the first seven games of the game before stopping the bleeding on Gauff’s serve.
But as 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.
Finalist in 2022 at Roland-Garros, the American will try to climb for the second time in her career in the final of a Major. “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! “warned Gauff. The player is also qualified for the quarter-finals of the doubles tournament with her compatriot Jessica Pegula.
First semi-final at Flushing Meadows for Karolina Muchova
For her part, Karolina Muchova, 10? in the world, also qualified for her first semi-final at the US Open on Tuesday by dismissing the Romanian Sorana Cirstea (30?) 6-0, 6-3. She had never made it past the round of 16 at Flushing Meadows. Gauff “is a great player and she will have the crowd with her. But hopefully I can play a good game,” Muchova said.
Tuesday in the quarters, she put an end to the beautiful course of Cirstea who, at 33, had notably eliminated in the third round the 4? world Elena Rybakina. By taking advantage of his opponent’s unforced errors (12), and hitting him with winning shots (14), Muchova played six games in a row.
Some of these games were very tight, however, like the fourth: Muchova saved nine break points and concluded on her third game point in more than a quarter of an hour.
On the restart, Cirstea won her first game of the game, before succeeding in the break in stride. But she did not keep her advantage for long, since the Czech immediately broke and reattached at 2-2.
And Mouchova made the decisive break to lead 4-3. She confirmed at 5-3 and took the opposing serve one last time, finishing with a big winning forehand.
