SAN JOSE, California — Second-place Paula Badosa defeated Coco Gauff 7-6(4), 6-2 at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic to advance to her fourth semi-final of the year.
Badosa won nine in a row while Gauff struggled with her serve and took a 2–0 lead in the second set before easing the lead to 5–1. Gauff committed six double faults in the first set, including the last two points.
“It’s never easy to start against such an aggressive player with a big serve,” Badosa said. “I think I adapted pretty well to the (star) (end) of the first set and had a perfect tiebreak, so I’m very happy about that.”
Badosa will face No. 7 seed Daria Kasatkina.
Kasatkina, the 2021 finalist, bounced back and beat Arina Sobolenko 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 in 2 hours and 23 minutes. Sobolenko, who was injured at the end of the match, made 22 double faults.
In the other semi-final, No. 9 seeded Veronika Kudermetova will play against unseeded Shelby Rodgers.
Kudermetova took the first three games of the second set to a 5-1 lead before pinning third seed Ons Jaber 7-6(5), 6-2. Kudermetova advanced to the semi-finals in singles and doubles.
Rodgers beat American Amanda Anisimova 6-4, 6-4 to improve her head-to-head record to 3-0. Rodgers went undefeated in three games this week, losing just 18 games.
Badosa beat Gauff to advance to the fourth semi-final of the year originally appeared on NBCSports.com
Source: sports.yahoo.com