Coco Gauff vs. Aryna Sabalenka score, result, and highlights: defending champion advances to Australian Open……
Aryna Sabalenka, the reigning Australian Open champion, advanced to the women’s singles final after defeating Coco Gauff on Thursday night at Rod Laver Arena. The world number two was simply too powerful for Gauff in the semi-final, defeating her in straight sets 7-6(2) 6-4 over one hour and 42 minutes. Sabalenka avenged her loss to Gauff in last year’s US Open final by winning. The second seed will now face the winner of the match between 12th seed Qinwen Zheng and qualifier Dayana Yastremska in the final.
The second seed will now play the winner of 12th seed Qinwen Zheng and qualifier Dayana Yastremska in the final.
Despite Sabalenka clearly being the best player on the night, there were five breaks of serve in a topsy-turvy first set, with Gauff also serving six double faults.
Sabalenka served for the set at 5-3 but a crowd distraction seemed to put her off temporarily, with Gauff breaking back, holding and then forcing another break to serve for the first set herself at 6-5.
But Sabalenka struck back as Gauff attempted to serve it out, forcing a tiebreaker, before the world no.2 put the foot down to accelerate away with the first set.
The second set was more regulation, with Sabalenka breaking in the ninth game to lead 5-4 before successfully serving out the match the next game. No matter who Sabalenka faces in Saturday’s final, the world number two will be a heavy favourite against either Zheng or Yastremska.
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