![\"Elina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2258443386-1769515992.jpg\")
Elina Svitolina of Ukraine plays a backhand against Coco Gauff of the US during their quarterfinal [Quinn Rooney\/Getty Images]Svitolina hopes Gauff upset brings \u2018a little light\u2019 to Ukraine<\/p>\nCarlos Alcaraz has charged into the Australian Open \u200dsemifinals for \u200dthe first time in his career with a dominant 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 victory over local favourite Alex de Minaur, keeping his bid \u2060for a career Grand Slam alive at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n
The \u200b22-year-old swapped extravagance for efficiency at Rod Laver \u200dArena in Melbourne on Tuesday to extinguish the hopes of sixth-seeded de Minaur, who was aiming to end a five-decade Australian wait for a \u200dhomegrown men\u2019s \u2060champion at the tournament.<\/p>\n
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Six-time major winner Alcaraz broke de Minaur early to take a 3-0 lead, but his retooled serve came under scrutiny in the fifth game when he faced three break points.<\/p>\n
De Minaur retrieved relentlessly and broke back to \u200blevel before recovering another break in \u200cthe ninth game and delighting the centre court crowd by holding in the next, but some loose points allowed Alcaraz to edge a \u200cgripping opening set.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz began the second set as he did the first, and \u200cthe top seed was in no \u2060mood to let the advantage slip this time, hitting two rasping backhand crosscourt winners to go ahead 5-2 and tighten his grip on \u200cthe match.<\/p>\n
A deflated de Minaur surrendered serve early in the third set, and Alcaraz did not look back, wrapping \u200dup the victory and securing a clash with the third seed, Alexander Zverev.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really happy how I\u2019m playing every match. Each round, my level is increasing,\u201d Alcaraz said in a warning to his rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I felt really comfortable, playing great tennis that I am really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, German Zverev sent down 24 aces in a 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) victory over Learner Tien of the United States to book his last-four spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have seen him throughout the whole tournament, and I know he is playing great, aggressive tennis,\u201d Alcaraz said of Zverev.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to be ready \u2013 not just me but my whole team as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to play tactically really well. It\u2019s going to be a great battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other two quarterfinals will be played on Wednesday when 10-time Melbourne champion Novak Djokovic will face Italy\u2019s fifth-seeded Lorenzo Musetti.<\/p>\n
The winner will face either two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner or eighth-seeded American Ben Shelton in the semifinals.<\/p>\n
Elina Svitolina of Ukraine plays a backhand against Coco Gauff of the US during their quarterfinal [Quinn Rooney\/Getty Images]Svitolina hopes Gauff upset brings \u2018a little light\u2019 to Ukraine<\/p>\n
Elina Svitolina said she hopes her stunning upset of third-seeded Coco Gauff will bring \u201ca little light\u201d to her fellow Ukrainians during a bitter winter under attack by Russia.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old trounced the American 6-1, 6-2 to set up a semifinal against Belarusian world number one Aryna Sabalenka.<\/p>\n
Like other Ukrainian players, Svitolina does not shake hands with opponents from Russia and Moscow\u2019s ally Belarus.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor my country, it\u2019s great,\u201d she said of her sweeping victory over Gauff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s, of course, very close to my heart to see a lot of support from Ukrainians, and lots of people get to know tennis in Ukraine, which is great, because right now, it\u2019s very \u2013 one of the toughest winters for Ukrainian people without electricity and everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I feel, like, bring this light, a little light, just positive news to Ukrainian people, to my friends when they are watching my matches. It\u2019s a great feeling for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many Ukrainians have been without electricity and heating in freezing temperatures as Russia has targeted Ukraine\u2019s energy infrastructure, particularly in winter, throughout the nearly four-year war.<\/p>\n
A decade older than Gauff, the former world number three Svitolina was playing her 14th Grand Slam quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
She had managed to press on to the semis only three times before and never in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery, very pleased with the tournament so far,\u201d said Svitolina, who is on a 10-match winning streak after a title-winning run at Auckland this month.<\/p>\n
Making the semifinals will propel her back into the top 10.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always been my dream to come back after maternity leave to make the top 10. Always been my goal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means the world to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two-time Grand Slam champion Gauff\u2019s serve deserted her, and she was broken four times in the first set and twice in the second to leave her title aspirations in tatters.<\/p>\n
She won just 41 percent of her first service points while committing 19 unforced errors.<\/p>\n
Gauff suffered from serving issues throughout the tournament and was broken immediately.<\/p>\n
Svitolina, with husband Gael Monfils watching on, failed to capitalise and conceded her serve as well, but Gauff then sent down two double faults at crucial moments to be broken yet again.<\/p>\n
Clearly flustered, she was broken for a third time, to love, as the Ukrainian raced to 5-1 with a fifth double fault of the match, gifting Svitolina another break and the set in 29 minutes.<\/p>\n
Gauff summoned a ball kid, asked for three racquets to be restrung and left the court for a toilet break after the first-set annihilation.<\/p>\n
But it didn\u2019t help. She was broken for a fifth straight time to open set two.<\/p>\n
She finally managed to hold on her sixth attempt, but there was no way back.<\/p>\n
It is the first time Svitolina has reached the last four in Melbourne after quarterfinal runs in 2018, 2019 and 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Alcaraz has charged into the Australian Open \u200dsemifinals for \u200dthe first time in his career with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[1296,428,591,50,640,217,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-393661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-asia-pacific","tag-australia","tag-europe","tag-news","tag-spain","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}