Coco Gauff managed to battle her way into the semifinal of the Indian Wells Open, despite having huge issues with her second serve.
The US Open champion came into this contest in very good form. Gauff crushed Elise Mertens in the previous round with an utterly devastating display that left her opponent helpless.
Her victory against Mertens was also her first since turning 20 years old. After the match, Gauff discussed her goals in tennis and off-court for her 20s, which included the American making it clear that having kids was not in the plan.
The home favourite faced the formidable prospect of Yue Yuan for a place in the semifinal. Yuan had won nine matches in a row before this clash, including claiming a maiden WTA title at the 250 event in Austin.
Gauff and Yuan will be relieved they were on Court 2 for their meeting. This is because Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev were delayed due to a bee invasion on Court 1, with this delay lasting nearly two hours.
The US Open champion's problems on second serve began in the very first game. Yuan broke immediately, with double faults already starting, but Gauff then immediately broke back in the next game.
More positively, Gauff won over 70% of points on first serve when she landed it. This helped her cover for the huge number of double faults, with nine in the set in total. The American held three times in a row and broke again to lead 5-2.
Gauff was broken when serving for the set after hitting three double faults in the game. However, some excellent shots in the next game allowed her to break a third time to take the set 6-4.
The second set followed a very similar pattern to the first. Gauff lost her serve in the first game of the set, with double faults again being a huge issue. She served 8 more of these in total in the second set.
Yet, Gauff showed her champion's mindset by finding a way to battle through those difficulties again. Yuan led 3-1 and had three more break points to make it 4-1, but the 20 year old produced some outstanding shots to dig out the game.
That proved to be absolutely crucial. Yuan, who has played a lot of tennis in the last couple of weeks, seemed to tire after that. The unforced errors began to increase from her racket, and Gauff took full advantage.
The home favourite won five games in a row to triumph 6-4 6-3. Managing to win in straight sets despite those considerable issues with her second serve shows just how good the rest of Gauff's game is.
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