Coco Gauff was two points from being knocked out of her home Grand Slam, staring down a match point in a second-set tie-break, when she constructed the shot of her tournament: a 39-stroke rally ended with a backhand threaded past Mirra Andreeva. Ninety minutes later she was into the US Open semi-finals, a 2-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 winner over the French Open champion after two hours and 19 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The fourth seed saved two match points in that tie-break, screamed “all heart!” towards her player box with her palm hammering her chest, and then dismantled a 19-year-old who had spent the first set looking like the better player by some distance. Gauff will now face Elena Rybakina — who earlier on Wednesday secured the world number one ranking for the first time — for a place in Saturday’s final.
Twenty-six minutes from disaster
Andreeva won the first seven points of the match and the opening set in 26 minutes. Gauff’s forehand was leaking errors, her ball toss was drifting, and the serve that has been rebuilt twice in two years began to fracture: she finished with 12 double faults, 42 unforced errors and only 22 winners. On paper, it is the statistical profile of a straight-sets loss.
What saved her was the willingness to change the shape of the match. Gauff came forward 28 times and won 19 of those points, refusing to let Andreeva dictate from the baseline where the Russian was comfortably the more precise striker. The second-set tie-break turned on that decision. Gauff led 5-3 after the 39-shot exchange, was pegged back to 6-6, and then survived at 6-7 when Andreeva pushed a forehand long. She saved the second match point moments later when a return dribbled into the net.
- Gauff is now 6-0 against Andreeva in their careers
- It was the fifth time she has saved match point at tour level, and the second at a major — the first was against Polona Hercog at Wimbledon in 2019, aged 15
- This is her seventh Grand Slam semi-final
“The motto of the match is just to fight,” Gauff said afterwards. She had watched Frances Tiafoe come from behind on the same court a day earlier. “At the end of the first set I was thinking about Frances and how he came back. I was honestly trying to literally leave this court with no regrets.” On the crowd that carried her: “I don’t have that fear of disappointing them. I’m just using them.” Former British number one Annabel Croft summed up the transformation: “She’s unrecognisable from the player at the start of this match.”
Rybakina arrives as the new number one
The reward is arguably the hardest assignment left in the draw. Rybakina beat Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in two hours and 14 minutes to reach the last four, a result that guarantees she will replace Aryna Sabalenka at the top of the WTA rankings when the tournament ends — the first Kazakh player, man or woman, to hold the position.
Their head-to-head sits at 1-1. Stylistically it is a clean contrast: Rybakina’s serve is the most punishing weapon in the women’s game and she gives opponents almost nothing to attack on the first ball, while Gauff’s edge is movement, defence and the ability to extend rallies until the error arrives. Twelve double faults will not survive contact with a returner of Rybakina’s quality, and Gauff knows it. “Elena, well, she’s the new world number one, so it’s going to be a tough match.”
The strongest semi-final line-up in 17 years
The other half pairs top seed Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, with third seed Jessica Pegula in a rematch of the 2024 final. It means all four top seeds have reached the women’s singles semi-finals at a major for the first time since Wimbledon in 2009 — a rebuke to the idea that the women’s tour is defined by chaos rather than a settled hierarchy.
For Gauff, the wider stakes are about consolidation. She won here in 2023 and Roland Garros in 2025, but her season has been punctuated by serving crises and mid-tournament exits. A win over the incoming number one, in New York, with a second US Open title one match beyond it, would reframe 2026 entirely. On Wednesday she offered the most useful evidence of all: on the days the technique deserts her, the competitor does not.
Sources: [ESPN](https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/49884369/coco-gauff-saves-match-points-rallies-mirra-andreeva-reach-2026-us-open-semifinals), [Tennis Now](https://tennisnow.com/fearless-gauff-saves-two-match-points-fights-off-andreeva-for-us-open-semifinals/), [Yahoo Sports](https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/gauff-saves-match-points-set-210913288.html), [France 24](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20260909-rybakina-ensures-rise-to-world-no-1-by-reaching-us-open-semis), [NBC Sports](https://www.nbcsports.com/tennis/news/coco-gauff-rallies-to-reach-the-us-open-semifinals-against-new-womens-no-1-elena-rybakina)
**Note on the headline:** I verified every fact above, but could not source anyone actually saying “warrior” about Gauff. Rather than invent a quote to justify the headline, I built the piece around what she did say (“the motto of the match is just to fight”) and her “all heart!” gesture. Suggested headline: **Gauff saves match points to set up Rybakina semi-final**. Article body is 726 words.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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