Gauff defeats Muchova and will face Sabalenka in the final

New York –

Coco Gauff never wavered. He didn’t do that when a huge first-set lead evaporated. The same goes for when he throws away a ton of match points. She was unfazed by Thursday night’s most disturbing incident, when her semifinal match with Karolina Muchova was interrupted for 50 minutes by protests from climate activists, including one who glued her feet to Arthur · People on cement in the stands at Ashe Stadium.

The American teenager defeated Czech player Muchova 6-4, 7-5 to reach the US Open final for the first time.

Gauff will face second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s final. The Belarusians defeated local Madison Keys 0-6, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (10-5) in a controversial semi-final that ended at 1am.

The most difficult thing for 19-year-old Gauff was to seal victory: She needed six match points to achieve that goal, and referee Alison Hughes repeatedly implored her to calm down and the raucous home crowd enthusiastically encouraged her.

After failing to convert match point while serving for a 5-3 lead, or gain four more match points in the final game, Gauff had a final chance with a winning forehand to make his match He had 40 hits, which was the longest ever. Dueling. Muchova then went out of bounds with her backhand, ending the game.

“The noise was so loud that I suddenly didn’t know if I was going deaf,” said Gauff, the first American teenager to play in a championship game in New York since Serena Williams in 2001.

“I grew up watching this game many times so getting to the final means a lot. “I have a lot of reasons to celebrate,” Goff said. “But the job isn’t over yet and I hope they can come and support me on Saturday. “

Gauff won the first set and was leading 1-0 in the second when three protesters began shouting from the top of the stadium. Two of them were quickly removed by security and police eventually showed up. But it took a long time to remove those stuck to the surface.

Two players left the field during the delay.

It was Gauff’s 11th straight win and her 17th in her last 18 matches, a streak that began after a first-round loss at Wimbledon in July. He was one step away from winning the most important championship of his career.

Sixth-seeded Gauff lost the 2022 French Open final and will now try to win her first Grand Slam title.

Sabalenka won the Australian Open title in January and has a record of 23 wins and 2 losses in Grand Slam matches this season. She is expected to top the rankings for the first time in her career next week.

But she narrowly lost to Case, who led 5-3 in the second set. Sabalenka scored 12 straight points to get back into the game.

In women’s Grand Slam tournaments, a tiebreak of a 6-6 tie is won by the first tennis player to reach 10 points, whereas the previous requirement was 7 points.

Apparently Sabalenka forgot about it. When he led 7-3, he put down his racket, put his hands on his face, and smiled broadly.

Suddenly, he realized he had more work to do. However, he got the job done on the third match point.

“I actually don’t know how I turned this game around,” Sabalenka said.