Coco Gauff storms into Wuhan with her 50th victory in 2024 and opens the semi-finals

American tennis star Coco Gauff stormed into the semifinals of the Wuhan Open on Friday with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Magda Linette, her 50th WTA main draw victory of the year.

Gauff, who won the China Open last week for her second WTA Tour title of the season, saved all five break points she faced in the match, four of them in the first set.

She also won 14 of 21 return points in the first set when Linette, the former Polish Australian Open semifinalist, was knocked down by a bagel.

In the second set, Linette fought hard, but Gauff won 12 of 14 points at a crucial point to set herself up for victory. Trailing 3-2, Gauff beat Linette at 15 and held again at 15, leaving her just one game away from victory.

Gauff then finished the game in one hour and 24 minutes, extending her winning streak to nine games.

In the semifinals, the 2023 US Open champion will face either number 1 seed and reigning US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka or another Polish player, Magdalena Frech.

“I’m very happy with the way I played,” said Gauff after the game. “Obviously a smooth first set. I might have had a chance to close the game in the second game when the score was 5-3, but I'm glad I was able to finish it off with my serve,” she added.

After Friday's clear win, Gauff became the third American woman to reach the singles semifinals in Wuhan, after Venus Williams in 2015 and Alison Riske-Amritraj in 2019.

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With this victory, Gauff reached 50 match wins for the second time in a row, as the 22-year-old became only the third player to do so on the WTA this year, after world number 1 Iga Swiatek and world number 2 Sabalenka Tour succeeded.

According to the WTA, Gauff, world No. 4, is also the youngest player since Caroline Wozniacki in the 2009–10 season to achieve 50 or more WTA main draw victories (including two Olympic Games victories) in two consecutive seasons.