Gauff reaches Wuhan semi-finals with ninth win in a row

Coco Gauff marched into the semi-finals of the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open on Friday with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Poland's Magda Linette. The 1 hour and 24 minute victory marked China Open champion Gauff's ninth consecutive match win in China.

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Gauff's all-time win over Linette was a three-set triumph at the 2021 US Open when she was 17 years old. Meeting again with the Polish veteran three years later, the current world No. 4 was in no danger of losing a set against a player who defeated two seeds – No. 11 Liudmila Samsonova and No. 8 Daria Kasatkina – to to reach her first WTA 1000 quarterfinals.

“I’m really happy with the way I’m playing,” said Gauff. “Obviously a smooth first set. In the 5-3 game in the second I might have had a chance to finish the game, but I'm glad I was able to finish it with my serve.”

She never lost her serve in the win, breaking Linette's serve four times to become the first woman to reach the semifinals in Wuhan, where she will face either No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka or another Polish player, Magdalena Frech.

Further numbers on Gauff's victory:

3: Gauff is the third American to reach the singles semifinals in Wuhan, following Venus Williams in 2015 and Alison Riske-Amritraj in 2019.

5: Gauff saved all five break points she faced in the match, including four in the first set. She scored three of them in her first service game: After breaking Linette early in the game, Gauff fought back from a 15:40 deficit and built an early 2-0 lead.

8: Although Gauff never lost his serve, he committed eight double faults. The second serve worried the American despite the dominant result. She won less than 50% of those points, including a 4-for-13 clip in the first set.

12: Gauff won 12 of 14 points at a crucial point in the second set, paving his way to victory. After trailing 3-2, she held serve, broke Linette at 15 and held again at 15 to move just one game away from victory.

19: Gauff scored 19 winners, Linette 13 and made only 16 unforced errors. Linette made 22 unforced errors.

50: Gauff has now achieved 50 match wins for the second time in a row and is the third player after Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka to achieve this on the Hologic WTA Tour this year. Gauff is the youngest player to win 50 or more WTA main draw victories (including two wins at the Olympics this year) in two consecutive seasons since Caroline Wozniacki in the 2009-10 season.