Coco Gauff reaches French Open semifinals after coming from behind to defeat Ons Jabeur
By George Ramsay, CNN
(CNN) — Coco Gauff came from behind to defeat Ons Jabeur at the French Open on Tuesday and advance to the semifinals.
After losing a tight opening set, Gauff recovered to win 4-6 6-2 6-3 against the eighth-seeded Jabeur, who continues her chase for a first grand slam title.
The 20-year-old Gauff, meanwhile, is hoping to add to the US Open title she won last year. She is now into the final four at Roland Garros for the second time and will face defending champion and world No. 1 Iga Świątek in the next round.
“I was definitely trying to be more aggressive. She was playing really well the whole match,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “She was hitting a lot of winners which is something I’m not used to against anybody.”
Jabeur edged ahead in the match when she broke Gauff’s serve at 3-3 and went on to take the opening set, but the American responded well in a seesawing second set which saw three consecutive breaks of serve.
Having leveled the match, Gauff seized the advantage with an early break in the deciding set and looked on course for victory until a nervy conclusion.
Jabeur managed to rescue two match points – including one with an audacious drop shot – and also had a break point to get back on serve at 5-3.
However, the Tunisian’s hopes of a recovery quickly disappeared when she shanked a routine smash on Gauff’s third match point out of the court for her 38th unforced error of the contest.
“I got a little bit tight on the last couple of match points, but I think I did what I needed to do to win the match,” Gauff admitted.
According to Opta, the world No. 3 is the youngest woman to reach three or more consecutive singles semifinals at grand slams since Maria Sharapova between 2006 and 2007.
The women’s semifinals at the French Open are scheduled for Thursday. Polish star Świątek booked her spot in the final four with a comfortable 6-0 6-2 victory against Czech Republic’s Markéta Vondroušová on Tuesday.
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