NEW YORK Drawing inspiration from Frances Tiafoe\u2019s rally from two sets down to reach the US Open semi-finals, Coco Gauff saved two match points in her own fightback victory on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
World number four Gauff, a 22-year-old American and two-time Grand Slam winner, was on the edge of defeat in a second-set tie-breaker before ousting reigning French Open champion Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 7-6 (9\/7), 6-2 to reach the US Open semi-finals.<\/p>\n
Gauff advanced to a Thursday match at Arthur Ashe Stadium against Elena Rybakina, who beat Chinese qualifier Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, to ensure the second-ranked Kazakh star will leap to world number one next week.<\/p>\n
Gauff\u2019s victory was much like compatriot Tiafoe\u2019s comeback triumph Tuesday over fellow American Alex Michelsen in a dramatic five-setter.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you just need a little bit of inspiration, and Frances was that for me in that moment,\u201d Gauff said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrances was looking — I was watching the end of that set and it looked like he was down and out. And sometimes you just need a chance, and I think I got my chances today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauff struggled in the first set and battled through four service breaks in a row for the two until a tie-break where Russian teen Andreeva had two match points but each time fired an errant forehand. Two unforced errors on the final points gave Gauff her chance and she rolled through the final set.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just really determined to not lose that second set, because I felt like I worked so hard to give myself opportunities and lost them,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how the third set would go, but I was just really focused on trying not to lose that second set.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne point turned into another. Once the third set started, I felt pretty confident I was going to come out with that one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tiafoe, who faces American Ben Shelton in Friday\u2019s men\u2019s semis, has provided motivation beyond his never-say-die example at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrances is such a light and such a joy to have on tour. Always been so nice and just hyping me up and my family up,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cHe\u2019s a special type of person and almost everybody on tour can agree that he\u2019s one of the few players who is always lighting up the room and giving respect towards us women too.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a rare person in this world and in this sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not that Gauff is going to tell Tiafoe any of that, adding, \u201cI don\u2019t like to give him any credit. Hopefully he doesn\u2019t see these (remarks).\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauff did not message either Tiafoe or Shelton, whose early morning upset of Carlos Alcaraz was the latest-ever US Open finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s a bad luck or omen, so I usually don\u2019t like to text anyone while they\u2019re playing in a tournament,\u201d Gauff said.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s so incredible\u2019<\/p>\n
Gauff, the 2023 US Open and 2025 French Open winner, is excited that three black players — herself, Tiafoe and Shelton have a chance to win at Ashe, named for a legendary 1960s black tennis pioneer. Either Tiafoe or Shelton will play for the chance to be the first US men\u2019s major winner in 23 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so incredible. Honestly, especially on the men\u2019s side, I never thought I\u2019d be able to have the chance to see like an all-Black semi-final between the guys in my lifetime,\u201d Gauff said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to have also me in the semis, I think it\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
It helps sustain Gauff\u2019s belief in herself and her game.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust believing is all I can do. I mean, the game may not always show up, but I can control the belief in myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if it\u2019s delusional, the more instances I keep showing up and maybe being successful in those moments, maybe that delusion will be more factual.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK Drawing inspiration from Frances Tiafoe\u2019s rally from two sets down to reach the US Open semi-finals,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[185,1550,207,220,463],"class_list":["post-70080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-french-open","tag-coco-gauff","tag-frances-tiafoe","tag-french-open","tag-roland-garros","tag-us-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}