The 4th-seeded Cori Coco Gauff (USA) qualified for the semi-finals of the Australian Open after defeating Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine) in a three-set battle and two tiebreaks. The American tennis player won the match by 2-1 (7:6, 6:7, 6:2) in 3:07 hours of play.
Marta Kostyuk started strongly in the first set and after two breaks took a lead of 5:1 and served to win it. That was the cornerstone, as Cori Coco Gauff succeeded in staying in the set after breaking “on 15”. The American tennis player gave a set point to her opponent at her own serve, but saved it and eventually won it to make the result 5:3. Marta Kostyuk had another chance to serve for the set, but started terribly by 0-40, giving three consecutive breakpoints to her opponent, which Cori Coco Gauff did not miss and made another break for 5:4. The American player equalized and even made another break to lead for 6:5, but at her serve missed to win the set and thus needed to play tiebreak, in which she needed to save another setpoint before winning it by 8-6.
The second set was also quite contested with both players exchanging 3 breaks each and again needing to play a tiebreak, but this time Marta Kostyuk took a strong lead and succeeded in winning it by 7-3.
The third set was under the total dominance of Cori Coco Gauff, who started strongly making three breaks and taking a lead by 5:0. Although she lost the next two games, she succeeded in closing the set at 6:2 and winning the match.
Coco Gauff recorded 17 winners and 51 unforced errors, while her opponent Marta Kostyuk made 39 winners, but also 56 unforced errors.
In the semi-finals, Cori Coco Gauff will face the winner between the second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) and the 9th-seeded Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic).
