US Open 2023 / Semi-finals: Gauff and Sabalenka reach the final

The women’s semi-finals of the US Open were played last night in New York, and the two finalists are now known. In very different scenarios, Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka respectively beat Karolina Muchova and Madison Keys to reach the Flushing Meadows final for the first time of their carrer.

Gauff defeats Muchova again

With her victory last night, the young American now leads the Czech by two wins to nil. The win came in two sets, 6-4 / 7-5. Cori Gauf showed herself to be very solid defensively, and at times clinical on the counter-attack. All in all, it was a rather strange match between the world’s 6th and 10th-ranked players. From the outset, Muchova struggled to develop her game and get into her stride, committing many unforced errors. Probably fearful of the American’s defensive play, the Czech was soon 5-1 down. But then it was Gauff’s turn to have her doubts and make more errors. Muchova began to gain confidence and made up for lost time by breaking twice. And it’s at the worst possible moment that the world No. 10 starts making big mistakes again. Gauff breaks and takes the first set 6-4. In the second set, the balance of power was the same as at the end of the first, meaning fairly even, with two players far from their best, fighting with their nerves. And history repeats itself. With the American serving for the match, Muchova broke but lost her serve and thus the match at the worst possible moment, at 6-5.

And while in terms of actual play, the match lasted 2 hours, in reality it was almost an hour longer. This was due to an incident in the stands of Arthur Ashe Stadium, with protesters starting to demonstrate at the very start of the second set. Of the three, two were quickly excluded from the stadium, but the third had stuck his feet to the ground, and it took almost an hour for the police to intervene and evacuate him. For a long time, this situation provoked general incomprehension, particularly on the part of the two players who didn’t understand what was going on. But in the end, this unrealistic moment did not change the course of the match.

Sabalenka beats Keys after a crazy comeback

The Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka was clearly outplayed from the outset. Keys built on her good momentum and inflicted a bubble on the world No. 2, 6-0 in 20 minutes. And even though she lifted her head a little in the second set and began to drop her shots, Sabalenka was once again behind in the score, Keys led 5-3 and served for the match. Much like Muchova, the Belarusian broke back, but she managed to go for a tiebreak, which she won to level at one set apiece. With another break in her pocket in the final set, Madison Keys was caught again. To decide the outcome of the match: super tiebrak. And Sabalenka won, 10 points to 5, to complete an exceptional comeback.