NEW YORK — Coco Gauff knows what she’s up against in her U.S. Open semifinal with Elena Rybakina, whose firepower has vaulted the 27-year-old to the top of the WTA Tour’s singles rankings.
“I know I’m going to have some aces hit on me and some winners hit on me,” Gauff said, “but I’m going to keep fighting and give it my all.
“That’s all I can do.”
That’s how Gauff earned her first title in Flushing Meadows — and why the 22-year-old American is still in the running for another U.S. Open championship.
Fourth-seeded Gauff fought off a couple match points in a tiebreaker Wednesday to beat No. 5 Mirra Andreeva, 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2, and set up a showdown with the player who will be No. 1 when the new women’s singles rankings are released next week.
Gauff overcame a horrible start to give herself a chance at what would be the third Grand Slam singles championship of her career. She won her first major singles title at the 2023 U.S. open, when she had to shake off a similar rough beginning against Aryna Sabalenka in the final, and added a second crown at the 2025 French Open.
Andreeva, the 19-year-old Russian who made her major breakthrough as this year’s French Open champion, won the first seven points and took the first set in 26 minutes before Gauff regrouped. She said during the break after the first set, she thought about Frances Tiafoe, a fellow American player who came from two sets down in his men’s singles quarterfinal Tuesday.
“So, honestly, I was just trying to literally leave the court with no regrets,” Gauff said.
Rybakina, who represents Kazakhstan, edged China’s Zheng Qinwen earlier Wednesday, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, and reaching the semifinals guarantees her rise to No. 1 after the tournament.
Sabalenka will face No. 3 Jessica Pegula in the other semifinal Thursday, but no matter what happens in the remaining matches, Rybakina will end Sabalenka’s 99-week stay at No. 1 when the new rankings are released Monday. Sabalenka, a 28-year-old from Belarus, is seeking a third straight U.S. Open title and fifth major singles title overall.
“It’s just a number right now, and of course I’m in the semis, so my goal is to win the tournament,” Rybakina said. “It’s an amazing achievement, but you know how quick everything can change in tennis, ranking-wise, during the match, so I feel like I just need to focus on my game, try to recover and enjoy tomorrow.”
It’s the first time since 1975 that all four of the top seeds in the women’s singles bracket have reached the U.S. Open semifinals.
Gauff won a 39-shot rally to take a 5-3 lead in the tiebreaker, but Andreeva took the next three points to earn her first match point. Gauff erased that when the Russian sent a forehand long, then stopped Andreeva’s second chance at 7-6.
Then it was mostly all Gauff in the third set en route to her seventh Grand Slam semifinal.
Rybakina and Zheng were scheduled to start about eight hours after Ben Shelton finished off his victory over 2025 men’s singles champion Carlos Alcaraz at 3:33 a.m., the latest finish in U.S. Open history.
Rybakina said she struggled with the sun and shadows in Arthur Ashe Stadium early on after starting later in the day in her previous matches.
Zheng, 23, capitalized on Rybakina’s early struggles to get her only break of the match against one of the best servers in women’s tennis and take a 5-3 lead in the first set.
Zheng, who had been playing from behind so much in Flushing Meadows, couldn’t hold on to the lead, and Rybakina rolled through the second set in 38 minutes.
Zheng, the women’s singles gold medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, had to come through the qualifying tournament in New York just to make the main draw at the year’s final major championship event after elbow surgery dropped her down the rankings to her current place of No. 121. Once ranked No. 4, she is guaranteed to move back into the top 60.
She made a dramatic run to the quarterfinals, erasing a 5-0 deficit in the third set against Madison Keys in the third round and then climbing out of another 5-0 hole in the first set in her fourth-round victory over No. 8 seed Iga Swiatek.
However, a double fault gave her opponent a 5-4 lead in the third set, and Rybakina served it out to reach the U.S. Open semifinals for the first time.
“I think the wins that I had so far are great, but obviously today in the match I got a lot of chances in the third set, but I didn’t take it,” Zheng said. “That was a bit pity for me to lose this match, but obviously I could take positive things from U.S. Open this year.”
Rybakina came into the tournament needing only to reach the semifinals to ensure she would move past Sabalenka; had she lost before then, Sabalenka, Pegula or Gauff could have been No. 1 next week by winning the tournament.