The quarter-finals are underway at the Australian Open with Coco Gauff becoming the first player to book her spot in the last four. The No. 4 seed was made to work for it, needing three hours and eight minutes to defeat Marta Kostyuk 7-6(6) 6-7(3) 6-2 in a rollercoaster match.
Gauff went 1-5 down in the opening set before storming back to take it in a tiebreak. After dropping the second set it was her turn to race into the lead at 5-0 in the decider. She was broken while serving for the match but hung in there to get the job done and reach the semi-finals.
It meant that Novak Djokovic was made to wait for his own quarter-final against Taylor Fritz. The world No. 1 took to Rod Laver Arena more than two hours after he was scheduled, meaning he could drag into the night session. It’s the second successive round that Djokovic has played in the day session. Previously, his last day session match was in 2021.
Aryna Sabalenka will face Barbora Krejcikova in the second women’s quarter-final while Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev may be waiting around for their chance to finally get on the court.