Seventh-seeded Coco Gauff punched her ticket to the Wimbledon semifinals with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula on Tuesday.
Gauff recorded her fourth consecutive three-set win and registered seven aces en route to dispatching her former doubles partner in 1 hour and 48 minutes at the All England Club.
A two-time major champion, Gauff reached the semifinals of the grass-court Grand Slam for the first time in her career. Her opponent on Thursday will be No. 10 seed Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, a 7-6 (4), 6-4 winner against No. 14 Naomi Osaka of Japan.
“Honestly, pretty insane. Considering I hadn’t won a match on grass in two years before this tournament. I’m definitely just really happy with how I played today,” Gauff said in her post-match interview. “Jess is an incredible opponent and person, playing against her is never easy. I’m just happy to get through this one today.”
Gauff responded from a disastrous first set and overcame two break points in the opening game of the second before seizing control of the contest. A more disciplined style of play reduced her unforced errors, and she served out the second set.
Gauff broke Pegula to claim a 2-1 lead in the third and regained the advantage at 4-3 before winning the match.
“After seven years of playing this tournament, it’s finally the first time I can walk on this Centre Court and I didn’t feel nervous,” said Gauff, 22. “I don’t know if I’m becoming a vet or … I don’t know.”
Gauff and Muchova became the sixth and seventh active players to reach the semifinals or better at all four Grand Slam tournaments in their career, joining Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Karolina Pliskova, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka.
Gauff owns a 6-1 head-to-head record against Muchova, who also is in the Wimbledon final four for the first time and looking for her first Grand Slam title. Muchova won the most recent meeting in three sets on clay in the Stuttgart quarterfinals in April.
Muchova and Osaka exchanged service breaks in the first four games of Tuesday’s match before holding serve and settling it with a tiebreak, where Muchova jumped out to a 5-1 lead and clinched it on her third set point.
Muchova, 29, scored the only service break of the second set to take a 5-4 lead and then didn’t allow a point on her own serve, knocking out the four-time Grand Slam winner with her seventh ace.
–Field Level Media
