Ukraine's Svitolina beats world No. 3 to reach Australian Open semi-finals for first time

Ukraine's top-ranked tennis player Elina Svitolina (seeded 12) has thrashed the world No. 3, the US's Coco Gauff, to reach the Australian Open semi-finals for the first time in her career.

Source: Champion, a sports news platform within Ukrainska Pravda's holding company

Details:The match lasted just 59 minutes and ended with a score of 6-1, 6-2.

Australian Open – Grand Slam

Melbourne, Australia, hard courts

Prize money: A$43,436,000

Quarter-final, 27 January

Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) – Coco Gauff (US) 6-1, 6-2

The players were meeting for the fourth time, and Svitolina forced their head-to-head record to a 2-2 draw. In the semi-finals, Svitolina will face the world No. 1, "neutral" player Aryna Sabalenka.

It was Svitolina's 14th Grand Slam quarter-final and the fourth time she has reached the semi-final stage. The Odesa native has previously dropped out of the Australian Open three times at the quarter-final stage (in 2018, 2019 and 2025).

Svitolina has remained unbeaten since the start of 2026, winning ten matches in a row. From next week, she will return to the top ten of the world rankings for the first time since 2021.

Svitolina was the only Ukrainian player to progress past the first round of the Australian Open women's singles, beating Spain's Cristina Bucsa (seeded 51). In round two she defeated Poland's Linda Klimovičová (134).

In round three, Svitolina beat Russia's Diana Shnaider (22), and in the round of 16 she defeated another Russian, Mirra Andreeva (7).

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