Just watched the Coco-Svitolina match and, again, wow. Gauff got her serve broken in game 1 but broke Svitolina's right back, looking confident and solid. Then it was her turn to serve and she just completely crumbled from that point on. That first set was an absolute mess. One of the stats they put up on the screen showed she lost 13 of her first 16 serve points -- she finished the set having won just five of her 21 service points. All five of her double faults and 14 of her 26 unforced errors came in the first set.
She actually served better in the second set --21 of 22 first serves in -- but by then she was already beaten in her head. She was frustrated, angry, clearly flustered. She dumped balls in the net early in the set and sprayed three wide in the final game as Svitolina broke to close it out. What's funny to me was that in one of her earlier matches, Chrissie Evert (whom I despise as a commentator) talked about how Coco never loses her composure. She did in this match, and especially afterward, when this happened:
BTW, to be fair, Svitolina played terrific tennis. She was aggressive, sharp, hit her spots and attacked Gauff's weak spots -- her forehand and second serve. She is now 10-0 for the year, having won the title in Auckland a couple weeks ago. She's beaten Andreeva and Gauff back-to-back -- easily. She's now up to No. 10 in the live rankings. She now moves on to her fourth major semifinal, her first since Wimbledon 2023, and will face Sabalenka.
One of the things I like about watching a game/match after the fact is noting commentary that doesn't age well. In her pre-match analysis, Caroline Wozniacki said this of Coco: "She hasn't played her best tennis so far in this tournament. Every match she's gotten a little bit better. Now that we're in the quarterfinals, the pressure's kind of gone off of her shoulders. This is where she thrives. She will go in here, she'll play a lot more freely."
