Coco Gauff walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium as the defending US Open champion and, for a long stretch, looked nothing like it. For a set and a half, Mirra Andreeva had her on the ropes. Then the match turned into a survival epic.
The American saved two match points, outlasted the fifth seed in a 39-shot rally and clawed her way into the semifinals with a 2–6, 7–6 (9–7), 6–2 victory in New York.
Andreeva’s blistering start
From the first ball, Andreeva owned the baseline. She stormed through the opening four games, punishing short balls and dragging Gauff into uncomfortable positions. The Russian didn’t need brilliance on every point; Gauff was doing enough damage to her own chances.
The numbers told the story. Andreeva committed just five unforced errors in the first set. Gauff sprayed 14. She didn’t create a single break point. The 2023 champion looked rushed, out of rhythm, almost a step behind every exchange as Andreeva wrapped up the set 6–2 with authority.
A knife-edge second set
Gauff needed something to disrupt the pattern. She found it in flashes—more first serves, heavier topspin, a willingness to step inside the baseline. The set turned into a tug-of-war.
They traded breaks twice, neither player able to hold the momentum for long. Each time Gauff threatened to surge, Andreeva answered with clean hitting and sharp angles. Each time Andreeva seemed ready to close the door, Gauff dug in behind her serve.
The pressure finally boiled over in the tiebreak.
Andreeva earned two match points and stood within a swing of the semifinals. Gauff refused to let go. On one of those points, they produced a staggering 39-shot rally, the kind of exchange that silences a stadium before it explodes. Gauff ended it with a precise backhand, threading the ball into the corner and ripping the moment away from Andreeva.
She saved both match points, stole the breaker 9–7, and with it, the emotional center of the contest.
Champion’s response in the decider
Once the match flipped, Gauff did not hesitate. The third set belonged to her.
She broke Andreeva in the third game, finally reading the Russian’s patterns and punishing second serves. The American’s movement sharpened, her defense turned into offense, and the errors that had plagued her early all but disappeared.
By the seventh game, the pressure told on Andreeva’s serve again. Gauff broke to love, a ruthless stretch of points that underlined the shift in control. Serving for the match, she finished the job with a forehand, the shot that had misfired so often early now sealing one of her grittiest wins at Flushing Meadows.
From 2–6 down and staring at defeat in the tiebreak, Gauff had dragged herself into the last four.
Rybakina awaits
The reward is a heavyweight semifinal against second seed Elena Rybakina, one of the tour’s cleanest ball-strikers and a major champion in her own right.
Gauff arrives there having proved, again, that her greatest weapon in New York might not be her speed or her forehand, but her refusal to accept that a match is ever lost. Now she will need all of it against Rybakina, with a place in another US Open final on the line.
