'One match can change everything': Gauff knocks out Eala to reach Dubai semis

After saving three match points just to escape the third round in Dubai, Coco Gauff played as if she had a new lease on life in Thursday’s quarterfinal against Alexandra Eala. She raced past the Filipino 6-0, 6-2 in 67 minutes, silencing what had been a frenetic Center Court crowd throughout the week’s night sessions.

Dubai: Scores | Draws | Order of play 

With her first win over Eala at the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz level, Gauff advanced to her second Dubai semifinal and became the third American into the last four. Jessica Pegula and Amanda Anisimova each won three-setters earlier in the day, over Clara Tauson and defending champion Mirra Andreeva, respectively, to join her.

“Each match, I’ve gotten better,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “I definitely wasn’t in good spirits before entering this tournament, but you know, one match can change everything. I honestly didn’t think I would be in the semis at the start of this, but I’m happy that I’m here.”

Three Americans will feature in the semifinals of a WTA 1000 event for the third time since the format’s introduction in 2009 following Beijing 2025 (Gauff, Pegula, Anisimova) and Toronto 2024 (Navarro, Anisimova & Pegula).

All told, Gauff’s path to victory on Thursday was far smoother than her compatriots’, thanks to a performance that was night-and-day from her previous outing.

Here’s how she got the better of Eala in a battle of young stars and punched her ticket to the semifinals.

Starting fast: Sometimes it’s as simple as getting off on the right foot. Against Mertens, Gauff was broken to begin the match and quickly fell behind 2-0. She never fully recovered in that opening set, forcing her to play from behind for most of the match.

Against Eala, it was the other way around. Gauff broke in the opening game, consolidated for 2-0 and never looked back. And she didn’t just control the start, she dominated it. She won all six games in the first set and the first 10 games of the match before Eala finally got on the board.

Playing from in front allowed Gauff to swing more freely than she has in recent weeks and it had a noticeable trickle-down effect.

Finding (and winning) first serves: That freedom showed up most clearly on serve. While her delivery wasn’t perfect -- she hit eight double faults, including four in one second-set game -- it was a clear improvement from her third-round win over Mertens.

Gauff was able to inflict significant damage with her first serve in particular, landing 54% of her first serves, a 12% jump from the previous round. She won 77% of those points, and that efficiency helped her win 60% of her service points overall, compared with just 50% against Mertens.

Eala, meanwhile, struggled mightily. She placed 57% of her first serves but won only 30% of those points, one of two major statistical gaps that defined the match.

Forehand dominance: The other was the effectiveness of each player’s forehand. And when Gauff is striking it cleanly, results like the one Thursday tend to follow.

She cut down the errors dramatically from her previous match and repeatedly turned to the forehand in big moments. Eala, by contrast, never found the shot. A pivotal sequence that defined the match came with Gauff leading 3-0 in the first set: an Eala forehand error handed Gauff a game point, and the World No. 4 finished the game with a forehand winner at the net for a 4-0 lead.

In all, Gauff used the forehand to finish off multiple games, while Eala’s misfires off that wing ended several of her own, culminating in one final error on the last point of the match. She finished with just eight winners to 33 unforced errors, while Gauff hit 15 winners to 19 unforced errors. 

What’s next: The result sends Gauff into her 13th WTA 1000 semifinal, the most by any player before turning 22 since the format’s introduction, and the third most by an American in that span, trailing only Pegula (14) and Serena Williams (26).

She’ll face the winner of Thursday’s last quarterfinal between No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina and lucky loser Antonia Ruzic. Gauff is 2-2 against Svitolina, most recently losing to the Ukrainian in the Australian Open quarterfinals, while she has yet to face Ruzic.

With a win in the semis, Gauff would advance to her first Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final.

Meanwhile, Eala's time in Dubai comes to an end, but it was a momentous week for the Filipino, who reached the second WTA 1000 quarterfinal of her young career and showed she still has room to grow.

"At the end of the day, I think there's definitely still a gap in terms of level between me and Coco and other players of her caliber," Eala said in her post-match press conference. "My job is to try and close that gap, and I think I'm doing that quite well. So I'll keep working on it and hopefully next time it will be a bit tighter."