Gauff ends Yuan’s run to reach Indian Wells semi-finals

It may not been a vintage Coco Gauff performance, but the American did enough to defeat Yue Yuan 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday afternoon. Gauff double-faulted a ridiculous 17 times and got broken three times, but five breaks of Yuan’s serve allowed the No 3 seed to advance in one hour and 34 minutes.

Yuan had an opportunity to make things interesting early in the second set. The recent Austin champion broke right away, held easily for 2-0 and earned a break point to seize a commanding 3-0 advantage. However, Gauff ended up holding for 1-2 and that kept her within striking distance. The 20-year-old eventually broke back for 3-3, after which it was all but over for the underdog.

Gauff clinched victory with a routine hold at 5-3, capitalizing on her second match point.

Gauff awaits either compatriot Emma Navarro or Maria Sakkari of Greece in the semis. The world No 3 has also has advanced this fortnight with victories over Clara Burel (2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4)), Lucia Bronzetti (6-2, 7-6 (5)) and Elise Mertens (6-0, 6-2).

It was still an outstanding tournament for a red-hot Yuan. The world No 49 from China previously knocked off Frenchwoman Varvara Gracheva 6-4, 6-1, No 8 seed Qinwen Zheng 6-4, 6-3, American Caroline Dolehide 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2), and No 11 seed Daria Kasatkina 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.

GAUFF OVERCOMES SERVING WOES

If you looked only at the serving statistics, it would be hard to believe that Gauff won this match. To go along with her 17 doubles — and as a result of them — she won just nine of 32 second-serve points.

“I played well — except the serve,” Gauff admitted. “Just gotta figure that out.”

The American survived it by jumping all over Yuan’s serve. Gauff won 42 percent of her first-serve return points and 70 percent when the Chinese underdog was forced to toss in a second delivery. The reigning US Open champion converted five of seven break-point chances.

“I’m really happy to be through today’s match,” Gauff concluded. “It wasn’t the best style of the serving, but overall I think when it comes to the groundstroke game and returns, everything else, honestly, I played well. I just try and take the positives into the next match.

“I definitely think it’s one of those matches I could have lost, and I have lost before in the past. I think for me the difference is that I know if one part of my game is off, I have a lot of other tools I can rely on. Today I pretty much just relied on me just out-rallying her and being aggressive. I think a lot of break points that were saved were off of…a lot of forehand winners.

“Yeah, I think for me it was just I didn’t let one part of my game affect the other parts — which I think I used to do. Now I’m just trying to also not be too self-critical of myself where it damages me. So I think today was one of those things just trusting my other parts of the game.”

Indian Wells WTA 1000, other last eight results:

• Maria Sakkari vs. Emma Navarro
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Caroline Wozniacki (WC): 6-4, 1-0 ret.
• Marta Kostyuk (31) beat Anastasia Potapova (28): 6-0, 7-5
  

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