Coco Gauff set a personal best at the US Open with her Tuesday victory over Jelena Ostapenko to reach the semi-finals of her home major for the first time.
The 19-year-old defeated the moody Latvian with the loss of just two games in what quickly became evident was one-way traffic.
The Floridian will bid for the final at Flushing Meadows against Karolina Muchova, who beat Sorana Cirstea 6-0, 6-3,
“It was unbelievable, a sweet victory,” the winner said.
The Czech winner will be playing her third semi-final at a major after Australia two years ago and Roland Garros in June, where she finished runner-up to Iga Swiatek.
Muchova moved into a repeat of last month’s Cincinnati final, where she lost to Gauff.
“She is an amazing player and will have the home crowd, I’ll try tp put up a battle against Coco.”
Gauf became the first teenager to reach an Open semi-final since Serena Williams 22 years ago.
The 19-year-old dominated as she broke an exhausted Ostapenko six times.,
The Latvian later complained about playing a late-night match on Sunday and coming back in the heat of the day 36 hours later.
“It’s really hard to recover from those night matches, because after beating world No. 1 (Iga Swiatek) I went to sleep at, like, 5:00 in the morning.
“Yesterday the whole day I felt very low energy. I thought today I was going to wake up and feel better.
“But honestly, I didn’t really feel much better.
“When you go to sleep at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning you need a few days just to recover – I think it’s a little bit crazy.”
Gauff won the opening set in 20 minutes but had minor niggles with her first serves in the second set on the way to the win in 69 minutes on a third match point.
Gauff, who lost in the Wimbledon first round but has since turned her form on its head, has won 16 of her last 17 matches, including WTA hardcourt titles in Washington and Cincinnati.
She is riding a 10-match win streak.
The winner said she could take nothing for granted against an unpredictable opponent and former Grand Slam champion.
“Playing Jelena, you know that 6-0 set quite literally means nothing. That’s tennis in general because there’s two out of three (sets).
“Honestly, I wouldn’t lie… I’m surprised not by the result but how the match went today. I’m happy with how I was able to stay in it.”
Gauff added: ” I don’t know if the heat really played a factor or not, because the match was short. If it was a longer match, I think it would have favored me even more.
“But I definitely could tell that she was a little bit frustrated with her performance today.
“Right now I feel emotionally fresh, which I think was the problem in the past in Grand Slams – I would be emotionally drained.
“I’m physically fresh and emotionally fresh; that just came from experience.”
