DUBAI: World No. 4 Coco Gauff cruised into the semifinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Thursday night, comfortably overcoming a passionate partisan crowd and the object of its affection, Filipina sensation Alexandra Eala.
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Gauff will now meet Elina Svitolina, the two-time Dubai champion who unceremoniously dumped her out of the Australian Open in straight sets last month.
American superstar and No. 3 seed Gauff had, by her own admission, played pretty poorly in her Round of 16 win over Elise Mertens on Wednesday, hitting 16 double-faults and being forced to save three match-points. Yet while she did not quite bring her A-game to the packed stadium to face Eala, such was the gap in quality that she still saw off her popular Pinoy opponent 6-0, 6-2 inside 68 minutes.
Eala looked tentative from the first game, quickly losing her first service game. Despite Gauff firing off the first of three first-set double-faults, the 20-year-old Filipina was then unable to capitalize, making the wrong decision, finding the net, hitting long. In the third game, she saved a breakpoint but then volleyed wide at deuce to hand advantage to her opponent, who gratefully took the next point to go 3-0.
