Coco Gauff’s bid for a third Grand Slam title was thwarted at the Australian Open quarter-finals with a 6-1 6-2 defeat by Elina Svitolina on Tuesday, after the third seed endured a nightmare on serve.
The result meant 12th seed Svitolina marched into the semi-finals at Melbourne Park for the first time in her career, after three previous quarter-final finishes, keeping alive the 31-year-old’s hopes of a maiden major title.
Ukrainian Svitolina will also return to the top 10 in the world when the updated rankings are released next Monday, a reward for her consistency after giving birth to her daughter with fellow tennis player Gael Monfils in late 2022.
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She said: “I’m very pleased with the tournament so far, it has always been my dream to come back here after maternity leave. It was my dream to come back into the top 10.
“Unfortunately it didn’t happen last year, I stopped after September and then when we were training and during off-season I told my coach ‘I want to come back into top 10’ so this was my goal for this year.”
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