BY SIMON CAMBERS
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Coco Gauff says she hopes her “bad” match was out of the way at the Australian Open after overcoming a slew of errors to beat Marta Kostyuk 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 6-2 in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
The U.S. Open champion had 51 unforced errors, nine double faults and just 17 winners but battled past Kostyuk in 3 hours and 8 minutes.
The 19-year-old American has won 12 consecutive matches in Grand Slams and is two victories from winning back-to-back major titles. She’ll play defending champion Aryna Sabalenka or Barbora Krejcikova for a place in the final.
“I think today was definitely a C game,” Gauff said. “Didn’t play my best tennis but really proud that I was able to get through today’s match. Hopefully got the bad match out of the way and I can play even better.”
Kostyuk was appearing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Gauff’s forehand was particularly vulnerable and Kostyuk took full advantage, racing to a 5-1 lead only to show her own fragility with two double faults to hand back one of the breaks.
The American recovered to save a set point at 3-5 before leveling at 5-5. Kostyuk had another set point in the tiebreaker but Gauff won it.
The mistakes continued to flow and though she led 5-3 in the second set, Gauff could not close it out. She was two points from victory at 6-5, 40-40, but Kostyuk held and then took the tiebreak 7-3 to level.
The Ukrainian player said she was pleased to have made the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
“Very proud of myself,” she said. “I won for myself today and I think it’s the most important thing. It’s just the beginning of the season. Looking forward for what’s ahead.
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic, who has 10 Australian Open titles among his record 24 Grand Slam crowns, was taking on 12th-seeded American Taylor Fritz for a place in the semifinals. Djokovic has won all eight of their previous meetings.
AP
