Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka’s heavyweight 2024 Australian Open semi-final took place on Thursday early morning ET. The Belarusian survived a scare to bag the first set. However, the American did not help her case by making as many as six double faults.
Sabalenka raced to a 5-2 lead in the first set after Gauff displayed severe nerves. She double-faulted 6 times, compared to none whatsoever from the defending champion. To contextualise this, prior to the semi-final, Coco Gauff had 18 double faults in the tournament. In the first 4 matches of the tournament, she had 9 double faults combined. However, she committed 9 double faults itself in her quarter-final against Marta Kostyuk, which she managed to win in 3 sets.
Gauff is seemingly prone to having a high double fault count in high-stakes matches, allowing the pressure to get to her. The double fault count had reached a disappointing 26 for the youngster by the time the match was over. But against Sabalenka, she found her groove soon to stage a fightback and take the set into the tiebreaker despite trailing 5-2 at one point. She even took a 5-6, 0-30 lead, two points away from winning the set.
Sabalenka, however, brought out her best and stayed resilient to push it into the tiebreak. She dominated Coco Gauff to win the opening set 7-6(7-2). The World No.2 fired 16 winners to her opponent’s 11, which proved crucial too.
One foot in the #AusOpen final @SabalenkaA recovers the first set and takes a 7-6(2) lead over Gauff!pic.twitter.com/1DTfIkDygC
— wta (@WTA) January 25, 2024
In the second set, Coco Gauff had blown away a 2-1 lead, failing to convert game points and allowing Aryna Sabalenka to level the second set 3-3. Seemingly flustered by losing out on such a close first set, she also made two more double faults to take her count to 8 in the match. It was imperative for Gauff to relax and calm her nerves if she was to challenge Sabalenka and get to the final. It was a golden opportunity for the US Open 2023 champion since the other semi-final features two lower-ranked underdogs.
However, Sabalenka eventually prevailed, 7-6, 6-4. She has been in rampaging form and although she too faltered on certain occasions when it comes to her service games and unforced errors, she proved to be more disciplined of the two, winning more of the big points.
