Caroline Garcia will meet Ons Jabeur for a place in the US Open final after ending American teenager Coco Gauff’s hopes in New York.French 17th seed Garcia, 28, produced a clinical display to reach her first major semi-final with a 6-3 6-4 victory against the 18-year-old 12th seed.Tunisian Jabeur awaits after the fifth seed defeated Ajla Tomljanovic.Jabeur, runner-up at Wimbledon in July, secured her first US Open semi-final with a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) win.
The 28-year-old is the first African woman in the Open era to reach the last four in singles at Flushing Meadows after coming through the scrappy encounter against the Australian.The in-form Garcia is still yet to drop a set in New York, with this her 13th successive win in a streak that included her claiming her first WTA 1000 win in five years at Cincinnati.In only her second major quarter-final – and first since the 2017 French Open – Garcia immediately put Gauff on the back foot on Arthur Ashe Stadium and rarely relented.
Making her 42nd Grand Slam appearance, Garcia unsettled her opponent and subdued the home crowd with a fast start in which she quickly established a 4-0 lead with a second break of serve.
Contesting her first quarter-final at her home Slam, Gauff hit back in the fifth game but the damage had already been done. Garcia punched the air as she went on to clinch her first set point on serve after 45 minutes.
The teenager was bidding to become the youngest American woman to reach the last four in New York since Serena Williams did so aged 17 in 1999.However, her task was made even tougher as she lost her serve in the opening game of the second set. Willed on by the crowd, Gauff – set to make her top-10 debut after the tournament – saved two break points when trailing 3-1 but crucially she was unable to take an opportunity of her own in the following game.
Garcia dropped her racquet and held her hands up in disbelief as Gauff netted on the first match point to make her the first Frenchwoman to reach the last four since Amelie Mauresmo in 2006.Jabeur, nicknamed the Minister of Happiness in her home country, often looked down on herself against the in-form Tomljanovic, who beat Serena Williams in a thrilling third-round match.She apologised for her negativity afterwards, joking: “I think I am going to be fired as Minister of Happiness.
“It is tough to manage the frustration and I apologise for my behaviour.
“I wanted to stay calm but the racquet kept slipping away from my hands.”
Jabeur and Tomljanovic traded breaks in the opening set before the fifth seed took the lead with an outrageous reflex volley that landed just on the baseline.After closing out the first set on a long Tomljanovic strike, Jabeur instantly broke to start the second, but neither player could find any rhythm.
There were six breaks of serve in the first nine games, including when Tomljanovic served for the set at 5-3, before Jabeur eventually held for 5-5.Despite rescuing the set and forcing a tie-break Jabeur cut a frustrated figure and was jeered by the crowd when she twice threw her racquet to the ground.However, she was able to find her serve when she needed it most to keep alive her hopes of a maiden Grand Slam title.
“I know that I have it in me to win a Grand Slam – I had to keep working hard after Wimbledon and here I am in the semi-finals,” she said.