Tennis star Coco Gauff has reached the semi-finals of the US Open for the first time. The 19-year-old American was much stronger than her Latvian opponent Jelena Ostapenko 6-0, 6-2, who previously defeated defending champion Iga Swiatek.
Gauff, who capped Caroline Wozniacki’s impressive comeback in New York in the previous round, appears to have another strong opponent in Ostapenko. The 21st seed in the world surprised Swatik, the favorite to win the title, in three sets in the eighth finals.
However, Ostapenko never quite reached the level of her match against Swiatek against Goff. The American finished the first set in 21 minutes thanks to three breaks. In the second group, the Latvian struggled for some time, but Gauff won three matches in a row, 3-2.
Gauff will play in the semi-finals against the winner of the match between Romania’s Sorana Cirstea and Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.
Gauff broke into the tennis arena a few years back. When she was 15 years old, she had already reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2019. In recent years, she has achieved many successes in doubles. Last year, she was in Paris for the first time in a Grand Slam final, which she lost. This year, Gauff has already won WTA titles in Washington and Cincinnati. She is now in the semi-finals of the US Open. Last year did not pass the quarter-finals.
Zverev stripping
German tennis player Alexander Zverev was humiliated at the US Open when a spectator yelled at him with historic insanity. It happened during his match against the Italian Yannick Siner. Zverev was ready to serve when a spectator at Arthur Ashe Stadium loudly shouted “Deutschland über alles”, a reference to the controversial first verse of the German national anthem. Zverev immediately stopped and approached the referee. “Someone shouted Hitler’s most famous phrase,” said the tennis player. “This is unacceptable. This is unbelievable,” he added.
Referee James Keuthavong immediately turned to the audience. With the help of other spectators, the man who was screaming was identified and removed from the stadium. It broke the fourth set. Zverev lost 6-4. But then he qualified 6-4 3-6 6-2 4-6 6-3 to the quarter-finals.
“As a German, I am not proud of this history and it is not good to say such a thing,” the 26-year-old tennis player from Hamburg said after the match. “If I didn’t answer, it would be bad of me.” The grueling marathon match against Sinner lasted four hours and 41 minutes and ended at 2am. And in New York it was still 27 degrees Celsius at that time.
Medvedev against his daughter’s godfather
Carlos Alcaraz had been lying on one ear for a long time at that point. The Spanish title holder is Zverev’s next opponent. Daniil Medvedev also has a special match in the quarterfinals. The Russian competes with his compatriot Andrei Rublev, his dear friend and godfather to his daughter Alisa. Medvedev reached the quarter-finals by defeating Alex de Minaur.
He also faced Rublev at the 2020 US Open in the quarterfinals. Then Medvedev won. “We’re really good friends. I don’t think anything will ever come of it. We share everything with each other. We travel a lot and we’re on the road a lot. It’s nice to have a friend like that on tour.” Medvedev’s daughter was born last October. Despite the strong bond, Medvedev wants to reach the semi-finals of the US Open at the expense of his friend. “We won’t be friends on the track for a while, because we both want to win.”
“It looks like a hack.”
Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, who is confirmed for No. 1 in the world rankings next week, will face Cheng Kenwen in the quarter-finals on Wednesday. The Chinese had previously defeated Tunisia’s Anas Jaber 6-2, 6-4. Jabeur, who struggled in New York, reached the final there last year. Thanks to her huge win over Jaber, Cheng Kenwen reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career: “It feels like a big achievement.”
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