QUEENS, NY – Accuracy, some lobs from the baseline and a lot of patience were the weapons of Coco Gauff to overcome Karolina Muchova 6-4, 7-5 and reach her first US Open final in a match marked by an incident in the stands.
The 19-year-old American is having a memorable tournament, but in the semifinal she did not even have to play on the limit to dominate the Czech, who in different stages made mistakes that were inappropriate for a player who this year played in the final of the French Open.
It will be the second final of a Grand Slam for Gauff, who in 2022 lost the Roland Garros against Iga Swiatek. On Saturday she will have the opportunity to win her fourth tournament of the season against the winner of the other semifinal between Madison Keys and Aryna Sabalenka.
Gauff will be looking to become the fourth American to win the US Open this century after Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens.
“There is much to celebrate, but the job is not done yet. I hope they come back on Saturday”Gauff told the crowd still on the track after his victory.
A game in two acts
Today was the second time that the American and the Czech faced each other. Gauff and Muchova replayed the Cincinnati final from just three weeks ago. With the same result.
The game started with a very safe Gauff and Muchova making many mistakes. The American quickly made two breaks to move up 5-1. But she didn’t know how to close the set with her serve and she saw how Muchova was reborn, she stopped throwing balls into the net and managed to come back to 5-4.
But then, when he had his serve to equalize the score, his arm failed him again and with three unforced errors – for a total of 17 in the set – he delivered the first set.
At the beginning of the second set, with Gauff at 1-0, four people in the upper area of the stadium began a loud protest that interrupted the match for 49 minutes, until they managed to get them out of the venue.
Three of the rioters were escorted out of the stands within minutes, but the fourth stuck his bare feet to the ground, so the responding group of NYPD officers needed help from medical personnel to remove him from his seat.
The players, who had retired to the locker room, had to warm up again before restarting the game.
The break gave air to Muchova, who managed to limit errors and maintain his serve in the following games. But the protest did not discourage Gauff either, who kept his accuracy from the bottom of the track. The best moments of the crash were then seen.
In the eighth game, up 4-3, Gauff took advantage of a couple of errors by Munchova to break for a 5-3 that seemed final. But serving to win, the still adolescent did not know how to close the game. Muchova recovered the break and then kept her serve to equalize the set at 5-5. In that game the most spectacular point of the night was seen:
Coco Gauff would close the game to the rest in an endless game, in her sixth match point, before the delirium of the public overturned with this young woman who is looking for her first “big one”.
Just over an hour and a half of play that was made much longer by the “anticlimactic” interruption.
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