Gauff Saves MPs to Reach US Open Semis

Coco Gauff just stole a US Open quarterfinal that was halfway out the door. Trailing a set and staring at two match points in a second-set tiebreak, the fourth seed beat Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 on Wednesday at Arthur Ashe Stadium and booked a semifinal against Elena Rybakina, per ESPN and BBC Sport.

That is back-to-back Slam semis for the two-time major champion, and her first New York final four since she won this title in 2023. The next board is Rybakina, the new world No. 1 after her own quarterfinal win earlier Wednesday.

Blown away early, then the tiebreak fight

Andreeva, the 19-year-old French Open champion, owned the first stretch. She won the opening points in a blur and took the first set in 26 minutes while Gauff scrambled for rhythm. The second set stayed scrappy. Gauff broke and got broken back. Both players kept inventing ways to hand the other a look.

The tiebreak was the whole match in miniature. Gauff won a 39-shot rally to reach 5-3. Andreeva answered with the next three points and held two match points. Gauff erased the first when Andreeva's forehand sailed long, then stopped the second at 7-6. From there she closed the breaker 9-7 and flipped the building. Suddenly the American was the one dictating, and Andreeva's early control cracked.

Rybakina next after the New York reset

Gauff said she thought about Frances Tiafoe's five-set escape the night before and tried to leave the court with no regrets. That is the Ashe script she knows. Twenty-two winners against 42 unforced errors is not pretty tennis. Saving two match points and winning the last set 6-2 is how Slam weeks get rewritten.

Rybakina already punched her semis ticket and locked No. 1, a board we covered when Rybakina reached the semis. On the other half, Jessica Pegula is waiting after she beat Navarro, so the top four seeds are all in the final four for the first time at a major since Wimbledon 2009. Gauff's path still runs through a clean-balling Kazakh who just claimed the ranking. Fantasy and betting boards should treat that semis as a real scrap. Gauff earned the rematch by surviving the Andreeva storm. Flushing gets another loud American night.

Andreeva still made the afternoon miserable for long stretches. Fourteen unforced errors in the third to Gauff's two told the late story. The racket toss after the first break of the decider showed how fast the momentum flipped once the match points vanished. For American fans, Wednesday was resilience tennis with a familiar New York ending: the home favorite found the clutch points, closed the set that should have ended it, then controlled the third. Semis. Rybakina. No regrets left on the court.