The American wins the Auckland Classic for the ninth time in a row.
Aryna Sabalenka will play Elena Rybakina in the Brisbane final.
Elina Svitolina will play Coco Gauff in the final of the Auckland Classic to protect her title. Coco Gauff beat Emma Navarro 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals. Coco Gauff beat the fourth-seeded Navarro in just 62 minutes. In two years in Auckland, he has now won 18 straight sets and nine matches in a row. So far this year, she has only lost 15 games in four games.
Coco Gauff win in Auckland last year was the first of a great run that ended with her first major title at the US Open. This year, she seems to be in great shape. Her serve and strong ground shots have won her matches, and she hit 10 aces in 12 games to beat Navarro.
Coco Gauff said, “It’s a good start to 2024.” ” She’s a great player. We’ve played before, when I was about 12 and she was 15, so this is our second game since then. It’s awesome to play here. I hope everything goes well for her for the rest of the season.
Coco Gauff, who is 19 years old, played very well and was in charge. She was able to bring the ball back to the net with her strong ground shots and then use her powerful forehand to win. She said, “I’m just being pushy with my serve and return.” The day before the event, we practiced here and played one set. She was playing really well, so I think I knew I had to be at my best to win.
The second-seeded Elina Svitolina beat Wang Xiyu of China 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, but she had to take two medical breaks along the way. In the third game of the first set, Svitolina dropped her serve. In the fifth game, she dropped her serve again, with the score 4-1. She left the court for a medical break after getting treatment on the court for a lower back issue. When she hit the ball back, she broke Wang’s serve right away, but she then lost her own and lost the set 6-2.
With a single break in the 10th game, Svitolina took the second set. At the start of the third set, she asked for another medical break, but she came back to hold serve and break Wang for 3-1 and 5-1 leads. In the seventh game, Wang broke again, but Elina Svitolina came back and served two aces to win the set in the ninth game.
At the same time, Aryna Sabalenka, the second-ranked player in the world, beat Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 6-4 to set up a thrilling final match against Elena Rybakina. It will be a repeat of their Australian Open title match from last year.
Sabalenka won her first grand slam title in Melbourne last year. However, she lost to Rybakina in the final at Indian Wells and in the quarterfinals at Beijing before beating her in the WTA Finals. On Sunday, the Belarusian can beat Rybakina for the first time this season and improve her record to 5-2 against the Russian. This will come before she defends her title at the Australian Open.
The top-seeded Sabalenka took the lead 3-1 with a desperate return from deep that made Azarenka make a mistake at the net. She then won the first set despite having problems with her next two service games. To win the ninth game of the second set, she saved two break points. The eighth-seeded Azarenka dropped serve in the next game, giving her the win.
Rybakina, ranked No. 4 in the world, beat Czech youngster Linda Noskova 6-3, 6-2 to reach her 15th singles final of her career and her fourth in Australia.
“I love playing against Elena,” Sabalenka said. She is playing well in Australia and has won 15 straight matches. Last year, she won the title in Adelaide. “It’s always very good. Tomorrow, I’m really excited about the fight and hope it’s going to be great.
Credit: by Google News