First WTA semifinal & first top-10 win: Coco on a roll

Fifteen-year-old Coco Gauff achieved a number of firsts with her win over Kiki Bertens at the Linz Open.

Coco Gauff at the US Open

Coco Gauff reached her first WTA Tour semifinal on Friday with a stunning win over world number eight Kiki Bertens at the Linz Open.

The 15-year-old, in the main draw as a lucky loser after initially failing to qualify, produced another demonstration of her enormous potential by claiming her first victory against a top-10 player.

.@CocoGauff is through to the @WTALinz semifinal!

Knocking out No.1 seed Bertens 7-6(1), 6-4! pic.twitter.com/jZinFkkCXR

— WTA (@WTA) October 11, 2019

 

American Gauff, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon as the tournament's youngest Open era qualifier and then the third round at the US Open, saw off Dutch player Bertens 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 in an hour and 37 minutes.

She becomes the WTA Tour's youngest semifinalist since 2004, when Nicole Vaidisova won in Tashkent.

The American, who will break into the top 100 as a result of her exploits in Austria, will face Andrea Petkovic on Saturday for a place in the final.

Petkovic beat Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4 6-1, the German reaching her first semi-final of 2019.

The other last-four clash will see Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova take on Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.

Alexandrova dispatched Kristina Mladenovic 6-2 6-4 and former French Open champion Ostapenko overcame Elena Rybakina 7-5 6-1.