Elina Svitolina stunned American third seed Coco Gauff to sail into an Australian Open semi-final against Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday and inch closer to a maiden Grand Slam title.
The Ukrainian 12th seed kept her dreams alive with a 6-1, 6-2 demolition in 59 minutes under a closed roof on Rod Laver Arena, with Gauff’s serve imploding.
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Svitolina’s reward is a clash with imperious world number one Sabalenka, after the Belarusian overpowered teenager Iva Jovic for the loss of just three games.
Gauff saved her meltdown for the players-only tunnels under Rod Laver Arena.
She was seen obliterating a racquet against the concrete floor five times in a row as several officials walked by.
“It’s not surprising to see that with what bubbled here in the last hour,” an ESPN commentator said.
Gauff was unhappy the footage was shown, saying she “tried to go somewhere where there was no cameras.
“I kind of have a thing with the broadcast. I feel like certain moments — the same thing happened to Aryna after I played her in final of US Open. I feel like they don’t need to broadcast.
“I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn’t a camera, because I don’t necessarily like breaking racquets, but I lost 1 and 2. I broke one racquet on quarters, I think, or round of 16 of French Open, I think, and I said I would never do it again on court, because I don’t feel like that’s a good representation.
“But yeah, I tried to go somewhere where they wouldn’t broadcast it, but obviously they did. So, yeah, maybe some conversations can be had, because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.”
It followed a strange sequence where a ballgirl was turned into a messenger by Gauff and her coaching team.
The young volunteer had to run back and forth between Gauff, sitting on her bench, and Gauff’s coaches, sitting on the other side of the court in their corner box, relaying messages about the racquet weight she wanted.
“There’s all sorts of shenanigans with the tension,” Sam Smith said on Nine.
“This young lady. What an athlete to start with. She’s been back and forth, to go back again. And not done yet. No, no. She’s got the message right?”
The commentators suggested Gauff wanted racquets which were two pounds lighter.
They did not appear to be delivered quickly and Gauff was left desperately asking for answers when she trailed 0-30 and 0-3 in the second set.
While she briefly recovered it did not last long.
A decade older than Gauff at 31, former world number three Svitolina was playing her 14th Grand Slam quarter-final.
She had managed to press on to the semis only three times before, and never in Australia.
“Very, very pleased with the tournament so far,” said Svitolina, who is on a 10-match win streak after a title-winning run at Auckland this month.
Making the semi-finals will propel her back into the top 10.
“It’s always been my dream to come back after maternity leave to make the top 10. Always been my goal,” she said.
“It means the world to me. And of course I try to push myself, I try to give myself this motivation to continue. Very pleased with the performance at this tournament in Australia.”
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Two-time Grand Slam champion Gauff’s serve deserted her, broken four times in the first set and twice in the second to leave her title aspirations in tatters.
She won just 41 percent of her first service points, while throwing in 19 unforced errors.
Gauff suffered from serving issues all tournament and was broken immediately. Svitolina, with husband Gael Monfils watching on, failed to capitalise and conceded her serve as well, but Gauff then sent down two double faults at crucial moments to be broken yet again.
Clearly flustered, she was broken for third time, to love, as the Ukrainian raced to 5-1 with a fifth double fault of the match gifting Svitolina another break and the set in 29 minutes.
Gauff summoned a ball kid and asked for three racquets to be restrung, and left the court for a toilet break after the first set annihilation.
But it didn’t help, broken for a fifth straight time to open set two. She finally managed to hold on her sixth attempt, but there was no way back.
It is the first time Svitolina has reached the last four in Melbourne after quarter-final runs in 2018, 2019 and 2025.
She has made the semi-finals at Slams three times previously, most recently at Wimbledon in 2023.
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