Gauff earns 50th win of season, reaches Wuhan semifinals

WUHAN — Coco Gauff marched into Wuhan Open semifinals with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Poland’s Magda Linette on Friday. The 1 hour and 24-minute victory marked the American’s ninth straight match win in China and overall 50 wins for the second straight season.

Gauff broke Linette’s serve four times to reach the semifinals in Wuhan, where she will face either No.1 seed Aryna Sabalenka or another Polish player, Magdalena Frech.

The American saved all five break points she faced in the match, four of which came in the first set. Three of those came in her first service game: Having already broken Linette to start the match.

“I’m really happy with how I played. Obviously a smooth first set. Had chances to maybe close it out in the 5-3 game in the second, but happy I was able to close it out on my serve,” Gauff said.

She is the third American to reach the singles semifinals in Wuhan following Venus Williams in 2015 and Alison Riske-Amritraj in 2019.

The 20-year-old is the youngest player to secure 50 or more WTA main-draw wins (which this year includes two victories at the Olympics) in back-to-back seasons since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009-10, according to WTA stats.