Coco Gauff seems unstoppable once again, and Marta Kostyuk was another victim at the 2024 Wuhan Open.
Last year, Gauff was on an incredible streak when she completely dominated during the North American hard-court season. That culminated in her winning the US Open, and she was on a 12-match winning streak by the time she lifted the trophy.
She then extended the winning streak to 16 matches in Beijing before losing in the semi-finals of the China Open. This year, it was in Beijing where she started her winning streak.
The 20-year-old won the China Open, winning six matches at the tournament, and she brought that form also to the other WTA 1000 event in China, the Wuhan Open.
In her first match, she demolished Viktoriya Tomova, but in the third round, a much more challenging opponent awaited Gauff, the 13th-seeded Marta Kostyuk. The Ukrainian reached the third round after her second-round opponent, Amanda Anisimova, withdrew from the Wuhan Open.
Kostyuk maybe hoped that the extra rest would help her against the recent China Open champion, but Gauff started the match by breaking her opponent's serve. However, she immediately lost the break.
Still, in the fifth game of the opening set, the American player broke her opponent's serve once again, and this time, she controlled the remainder of the games on her serve.
She lost only one point on her serve in the remainder of the first set, delivering a great serving performance that carried her to winning the first set 6-4.
But the serve didn't carry Gauff only to the win in the first set. In the second set, she lost only one point on her serve, winning 100% of rallies after her first serve. She didn't hit any double faults in the match, and it was a masterful serving performance from her.
That one point that she lost on her serve was the first point on her serve, so after that, she went on to win 12 consecutive points on her serve in a row.
After losing that first point, she also won 12 consecutive points in a row in the match, meaning she broke her opponent's serve and established a 3-1 lead. The fourth seed then broke her opponent's serve two more times to cruise to a very simple 6-4, 6-1 win.
After the match, Gauff was obviously delighted about being able to play at such a high level and overcome a challenging opponent to reach yet another WTA 1000 quarter-final.
"I played really well today. Marta is a tough opponent, but I’m really happy with how I played. Every match I’m just trying to push through. It’s been a lot of matches in a really short amount of time, but I’m really happy with how I played today. It was a pretty straightforward match. Marta and I always have some good battles. Today I was able to get through in straight sets."
In the quarter-finals, the young American will play against Magda Linette from Poland. After the match, she was reminded of their only meeting so far, which she won 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, at the 2021 US Open, but she said she wouldn't take away anything from that match and praised her opponent.
"I don't know. I won't take anything from that match, it's so long ago. I practiced with her multiple times in between. She lives in south Florida. Yeah, so she's a tough opponent. We haven't played since then."
"I really don't know what to expect. But just from watching her play, she's been playing a great couple of matches here in Wuhan. I expect it to be a tough match. She's not an easy opponent to play."