Coco Gauff beats Magda Linette to reach Wuhan’s last four

Coco Gauff marched into the Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open semifinals with a straight sets victory over Poland’s Magda Linette on Friday.

The 21-year-old American and former US Open champion Gauff only needed and hour and 24-minute to beat her opponent 6-0, 6-4 and earned a ninth straight match win in China.

“I’m really happy with how I played,” Gauff said. “Obviously a smooth first set. Had chances to maybe close it out in the 5-3 game in the second, but happy I was able to close it out on my serve.”

Gauff’s previous win against Linette all-time was a three-set triumph at the 2021 US Open when she was 17 years old. Meeting the Polish veteran again three years later, the current World No.4 was under no threat of losing a set against a player who toppled a pair of seeds — No.11 Liudmila Samsonova and No.8 Daria Kasatkina — to reach her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal.

Gauff has now earned 50 match wins for the second straight season, the third player to do so on the Hologic WTA Tour this year after Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka. Gauff is the youngest player to secure 50 or more WTA main-draw wins (which this year includes two victories at the Olympics) in back-to-back seasons since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009-10.

She never lost serve in the victory and broke Linette’s serve four times to become the first woman through to the semifinals in Wuhan, where she will face either No.1 seed Aryna Sabalenka or another Polish player, Magdalena Frech.