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Gone in 59 minutes: Svitolina sends Gauff packing
The Ukrainian made it to her first Australian Open semi-final with a statement 6-1, 6-2 win over the third seed
Mumbai: At the start of the second set, Coco Gauff had lost 14 of the first 16 points. With a helpless look on her face, she sought help from her box. The message that came was simple: stick to hitting in the middle, don’t go for winners from the get-go, build the rally.
She did just that. The focus shifted to getting the ball over the net and between the lines, play the extra ball, work the extra yard. And the points started coming her way.
Gauff, the 21-year-old two-time Grand Slam winner, was down a set and trailing 0-30, 0-3 in the second. If there was a player who could turn things around from here, it was the hard-working and resilient world No.3.
But on the other end of the court was Elina Svitolina, a player in inspired form who was just as determined. There were many things riding on this match for the Ukrainian. She had never gone beyond the quarter-final of the Australian Open (this was her fourth time reaching this far in Melbourne), and was just a win away from breaking into the top 10 after returning from maternity leave in 2023.
She accomplished both on Tuesday with a statement 6-1, 6-2 win over the third seed – in a match that lasted 59 minutes.
“When we were training in the off-season, I told my coach I want to come back into the top 10,” Svitolina, the former world No.3, said in her on-court interview after the match. “This was the goal for this year.”
Svitolina has made all the right moves so far in 2026 and is now on a 10-match winning streak. She began the year by winning her 19th tour level title when she won the WTA250 event in Auckland. Now, as the 12th seed, she’s through to the Australian Open semi-final for the first time.
In this run, she has dropped a set just once, in the quarter-final against Sonay Kartal in Auckland.
“It was a good day in the office,” Svitolina later said in the press conference. “I’m very pleased with the way I’ve been playing, not just in this match but the whole tournament overall. I’m happy to be in the semi-final after so many years here, so many (attempts).”
There was a danger of losing another set on Tuesday. With Gauff finding some rhythm after speaking with her coaches, the American won her first service game of the match and at 3-1, 30-30 on Svitolina’s serve in the second set, the match had reached a crucial stage.
There have been so many moments in Gauff’s career where a single point turned the outcome in her favour. She thrives in those positions. After the washout first set and the early struggle in the second, she looked ready to turn the tide once again.
That’s when Svitolina hammered an ace, and forced an error off the Gauff racquet to win the game.
In many ways, those two points showed the way Svitolina has evolved as a player after she returned to the tour in April 2023, after giving birth to her daughter.
Always a gritty-player herself, Svitolina was a defensive-baseliner who would play the percentages more often than actively look for openings. After returning to the tour however, she has become an aggressive player off the baseline.
“It’s been about trying to find new ways to win right now,” she explained. “There are so many new and aggressive players now. If you’re not at your best they will take the match from you. You have to evolve your game, you have to be better. You have to try to find something that works for you.
“(Being an attacking player) is quite natural to me since I came back from pregnancy.”
As much as Gauff was struggling with her serve and forehand – problems that have haunted her throughout 2025 – Svitolina was playing aggressively and was constantly looking to take the initiative.
After dropping serve in the first time of asking, the 31-year-old won eight games on the trot. She hit 12 winners to 16 unforced errors and won 71% points on her first serve.
The win was her second win over a top 10 player at this year’s Australian Open, after she beat world No.7 Miira Andreeva in the fourth round.
Now she takes on the world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.
The Belarusian is also on a 10-match winning streak in 2026, and has a 5-1. Their last few meetings have been rather frosty, given Svitolina’s stand to not shake hands with Russian and Belarussian players due to the war in Ukraine.
Regardless of what happens after the match, some free-flowing tennis is expected during the semi-final between two hard-hitting and in-form opponents.
