BEIJING – Sixth seed Coco Gauff got off to a slow start again and had to overcome Ukrainian qualifier Yulia Starodubtseva 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the semifinals at the China Open on Thursday.
Gauff will play in the next round with Spain’s Paula Badosa, who earlier ended the unexpected run of local ticket Zhang Shuai for the title.
Starodubtseva, ranked No. 115, did not lose a set in her three matches this week, and she quickly took the lead, hitting ten winners and keeping Gauff in a first set full of errors for the American.
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Gauff also lost the first set to Naomi Osaka in the previous round before Osaka withdrew due to a lower back injury. Gauff helped carry Osaka’s bags off the court.
Former US Open champion Gauff needed to find a response against Starodubtseva and saved two break points in her opening service game of the second set. A service break pushed Gauff up 3-1.
After another narrow escape on her next service game, Gauff lost just three games for the rest of the match.
Zhang Shuai’s drought-filled week came to an abrupt halt as Badosa continued her resurgence with a 6-1, 7-6(4) win in the quarter-finals.
The Spaniard has won 28 of her past 35 matches dating back to May, and has reached the semifinals in three of her past five tournaments. There was also a qualification to the quarter-finals of the US Open last month.
But the story of the week was Zhang, 35, who entered the China Open on a 24-match losing streak – the second-longest losing streak in the Open era – and ranked No. 595. She had not dropped a set in four matches. Matches this week.
But the Chinese card had no answer to Badosa’s fast start as the Spaniard broke three times to win the first set easily.
The score was much closer in the second set as Badosa found itself 3-1 down. She gathered her strength and beat Zhang in a tie-break.
