{"id":433248,"date":"2026-01-27T18:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433248\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:45:07","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-and-carlos-alcaraz-march-into-semifinals-as-coco-gauff-makes-racket-shattering-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/433248\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz march into semifinals as Coco Gauff makes racket-shattering exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 A searing hot day<\/a> turned into a sweltering night at the Australian Open and eventually Coco Gauff let off steam, shattering her racket<\/a> after a lopsided loss to Elina Svitolina that cost her a place in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

Day 10 of the season-opening major began with top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka beating 18-year-old Iva Jovic 6-3, 6-0 on Tuesday before the Extreme Heat Policy was activated and the roof was closed on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n

The center court was still under cover when No. 12 Svitolina stunned the third-seeded Gauff 6-1, 6-2 in 59 minutes to earn a semifinal against Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s quarterfinals also were split into day and night sessions, with one played under a roof and the other under the stars.<\/p>\n

Top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz moved within two wins of completing a career Grand Slam after a 7-5, 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia\u2019s Alex de Minaur to close play. <\/p>\n

In his first semifinal in Australia, Alcaraz will take on 2025 runner-up Alexander Zverev, who beat 20-year-old Learner Tien<\/a> 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1, 7-6 (3) under cover in an afternoon match.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re 6-6 in head-to-heads, with Zverev winning the quarterfinal here in 2024, their only meeting in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great battle,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to playing him here, taking revenge.\u201d <\/p>\n

Svitolina\u2019s streak<\/p>\n

Weeks into a return from a mental health break<\/a>, Svitolina is in the semifinals here for the first time, and is on a 10-match winning streak after starting the season with a title in Auckland<\/a>, New Zealand. <\/p>\n

The series of wins will put her back into the Top 10 next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery pleased with the tournament so far and, of course, always been my dream to come back after maternity leave in the Top 10,\u201d said Svitolina, a 31-year-old Ukrainian who is playing her 12th major tournament since taking a break in 2022. <\/p>\n

She and Gael Monfils<\/a>, the French player who is retiring this year, are parents to Skai.<\/p>\n

Svitolina lost quarterfinals here in 2018, 2019 and last year, but she dominated Gauff from the outset. The 21-year-old American struggled with her serve and recorded five double-faults in the first set, when she was broken four times.<\/p>\n

She finally held in the fourth game of the second set, but by then it was too late. After leaving the court, the two-time major winner smashed her racket into the floor of a concrete ramp seven times on her way back to the player area.<\/p>\n

Gauff said she tried to find a place where there was no cameras to let out her frustrations, and went to the quietest area she could find. <\/p>\n

Svitolina, meanwhile, wanted to win for millions of people watching from afar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very close to my heart to see a lot of support from Ukrainians,\u201d she said. \u201cRight now it\u2019s very \u2014 it was one of the toughest winters for Ukrainian people and without electricity and everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I feel like (I) bring this light, a little light, you know, even just positive news to Ukrainian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heat rule<\/p>\n

The main stadium roof was retracted for the last match after the temperature dropped from a peak of just over 42 Celsius (108 F) at 5 p.m. local time. At least at the Australian Open site, the temperature didn\u2019t reach the forecast top of 45 degrees Celsius (113 F).<\/p>\n

Sabalenka-Jovic<\/p>\n

Sabalenka<\/a> is aiming for her third Australian Open crown in four years. She won back-to-back titles here in 2023 and 2024 and lost the final a year ago to Madison Keys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first of the quarterfinals was played outdoors, despite predictions of extreme heat. It was closed for subsequent matches after the tournament\u2019s heat index hit the threshold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess, yeah, as a woman, we are stronger than the guys,\u201d Sabalenka said at her news conference, laughing. \u201cThey had to close the roof for the guys so they don\u2019t suffer!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka went up 3-0 in the first set and established her dominance early against the 29th-seeded Jovic.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jovic had three breakpoint chances in the ninth game, which lasted 10 minutes, but wasn\u2019t able to convert against the world\u2019s No. 1-ranked woman.<\/p>\n

In the last game, Sabalenka served an ace on break point and clinched it with another ace on match point. She saved all five break points she faced.<\/p>\n

It gave her back-to-back wins over up-and-coming teenagers following her fourth-round victory over 19-year-old Canadian Vicky Mboko.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese teenagers have tested me in the last couple of rounds, incredible player,\u201d Sabalenka said of Jovic. \u201cIt was a tough match. Don\u2019t look at the score. She played incredible tennis and pushed me to a one-step better level. It was a battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

More AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 A searing hot day turned into a sweltering night at the Australian Open and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[29089,12082,652,1246,12083,33424,2073,5113,42962,24399,15950,12764,102518,200479,99,428,205250],"class_list":["post-433248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alex-de-minaur","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-australia","tag-australian-open","tag-australian-open-tennis-championships","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-coco-gauff","tag-elina-svitolina","tag-gael-monfils","tag-heat-waves","tag-madison-keys","tag-rod-laver","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-vicky-mboko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}