Indian Wells: Sabalenka crushes Gauff to book spot in semis

Aryna Sabalenka put on a serving masterclass to crush American Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-0 on Wednesday and reach the semifinals at Indian Wells.

Published : Mar 16, 2023 08:33 IST - 1 MIN READ

Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, celebrates her victory over Coco Gauff, of the United States, at Indian Wells.
Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, celebrates her victory over Coco Gauff, of the United States, at Indian Wells. | Photo Credit: AP
infoIcon

Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, celebrates her victory over Coco Gauff, of the United States, at Indian Wells. | Photo Credit: AP

Aryna Sabalenka put on a serving masterclass to crush American Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-0 on Wednesday and reach the semifinals at Indian Wells.

The Australian Open champion never faced a break point and used her hard and accurate serve to dispatch Gauff.

Sabalenka appears to have put her past struggles with double faults firmly behind her, not committing a single one against Gauff, while pounding down five aces and winning 87% of her first serves.

Gauff quickly fell 2-0 down in the first set and was unable to match the Belarusian’s level despite playing well.

Second seed Sabalenka kept her foot on the gas to dominate the second set despite the California crowd’s attempts to urge on the sixth-seeded Gauff.

“I knew you guys wanted to send me home,” a smiling Sabalenka told the crowd in an on-court interview.

“Thank you everyone for coming and supporting us, mostly her, but us. The atmosphere was unbelievable. I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here as long as I can.”

The hard-hitting Sabalenka will next face either seventh-seeded Greek Maria Sakkari or 15th-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova.

Sign in to unlock all user benefits
  • Get notified on top games and events
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign up / manage to our newsletters with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early bird access to discounts & offers to our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment