Svitolina routs Gauff in 59 minutes; into first Australian Open semifinal

Elina Svitolina is still perfect in 2026.

The No. 12 seed needed just 59 minutes to extend her winning streak to 10 straight matches with a 6-1, 6-2 defeat of No. 3 seed Coco Gauff in the Australian Open quarterfinals. She advances to her fourth career Grand Slam semifinal, and first at the Australian Open.

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Last September, Svitolina ended her 2025 season early, citing a need "to heal and recharge." The 31-year-old has raced out of the blocks on her return. She collected her 19th career title in Auckland at the start of the year, and is now on the third-longest tour-level winning streak of her career. (In 2017, she won 15 matches in a row, and in 2025 she won 11 straight.)

Indeed, Svitolina has only dropped one set in 2026 so far -- to Sonay Kartal in the Auckland quarterfinals. Svitolina trailed Kartal 5-3 in the third set before escaping 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-6(5). She's now guaranteed to return to the Top 10 in the PIF WTA Rankings for the first time since October 2021 in next Monday's rankings.

"Not bad, not bad at all," Svitolina said in her on-court inyterview. "Always been my dream to come back in Top 10 after maternity leave, that's always been my goal."

Svitolina's win over Gauff is her 24th career Top 5 win. Four of those have come at Grand Slams, all since her return from maternity leave. She levels her head-to-head with Gauff at 2-2, including 2-0 at the Australian Open having defeated the American 6-4, 6-3 in the 2021 second round. Gauff's pair of wins in the series both came in 2024, in the Auckland final and US Open third round -- both from a set down.

The Ukrainian will bid to reach her first Grand Slam final against No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka, who is also on a 10-match winning streak and who leads their head-to-head 5-1 (and 2-0 on outdoor hard courts). Svitolina's only victory in the series came in the 2020 Strasbourg semifinals; since then, she has won just one set in four meetings with Sabalenka. Svitolina's previous Grand Slam semifinal losses came against Simona Halep at Wimbledon 2019, Serena Williams at the US Open 2019 and Marketa Vondrousova at Wimbledon 2023.

Svitolina is the second Ukrainian to reach the Australian Open semifinals, following Dayana Yastremska in 2024. Should she defeat Sabalenka, she will become the first Ukrainian woman to reach a Grand Slam final in the Open Era.

What were Svitolina's keys to victory?

Since returning from maternity leave, Svitolina has worked hard to transform her counterpunching style into an aggressive, dynamic one. That was fully on show against Gauff: she struck 12 winners to Gauff's three, and in any given extended baseline rally was invariably the player who opened the court with changes of direction first. Her serve was also firing -- not just in its consistent high level (Svitolina won 71% of her first serve points) but in the moments she found her best deliveries. Svitolina's tally of four aces included one to seal a 3-0 second-set lead, and another at 3-1, 30-30 -- the only juncture of the match which felt like it could be a turning point.

"For me it's all about trying to find new ways to win now," Svitolina said in her press conference. "There are so many young players. There's so many aggressive players who, if you're not at your best, they are just taking the match from you. So you have to evolve your game. You have to be better. You have to try to find the ways to find something that works for you. For me, it's all about trying to be better every week, because you know, tennis evolvement is not stopping. So you have to always keep searching."

Crucial for Svitolina was maintaining her focus and preventing any change in momentum. As quickly as the match was going, she was aware of Gauff's ability to pull off the comeback -- particularly having lost to her twice from a set up.

"Of course, it's a good feeling and a bad feeling at the same time," Svitolina said. "Because you feel like you have a chance to play well, you have a chance to win this match. You have to keep going. You have to keep trying to perform well. I think I played well. I think I dealt with it well. As Coco is such a great champion, you know, she came back couple of times in our matches being one set down. For me, I tried to keep building, keep trying to play well and tried to really stay focused from the start until the end."

What went wrong with Gauff's game?

Gauff's woes with her second serve and forehand are a familiar story by now, and both came to the fore on Tuesday. She served five double faults, all in the first set -- and in contrast to Svitolina's aces, the timing was as unhelpful as it could be. She served her first double fault to go down break point in the opening game; another pair (including on break point) to go down 2-1; and another pair in the final game, including on set point.

The 21-year-old committed 26 unforced errors in total, including 12 off the forehand wing. Even her usually-solid backhand couldn't be relied upon -- Gauff struck nine unforced errors from that side, including a wide shot facing her first match point.

"She played really well," Gauff said in her press conference. "And unfortunately, usually when people raise their level, I'm able to raise mine, and today I just -- I didn't do that ... I just felt like all the things I do well, I just wasn't doing well today. The backhand wasn't firing. Forehand wasn't really firing. Returns. There was just a lot that didn't go well today.

"I credit it to her because she forced me to play like that. It's not like I just woke up and, yeah, today was a bad day, but bad days are often caused by your opponent. So she did well. Usually I'm able to kind of scrap out at least to make the scoreline tighter, and then you never know, nerves can come up on her, something like that. Today I just wasn't able to do that."