Coco Gauff beats Kiki Bertens for first Top 10 win of career in Austria
Friday 11 October 2019 16:54, UK
Coco Gauff claimed her first Top 10 scalp of her career to reach the semi-finals of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz.
The 15-year-old American needed a lucky loser spot to get into the main draw but has taken her opportunity superbly, and a 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 victory over world No 8 Kiki Bertens gave her the biggest win, by ranking, of her early career.
Gauff, who was already guaranteed to break into the Top 100 on Monday, is the youngest woman to reach a WTA Tour semi-final since Nicole Vaidisova won Tashkent in October 2004.
The 97-minute victory over top-seeded Bertens means that she will now take on Andrea Petkovic of Germany for a place in her first-ever WTA singles final.
Petkovic prevailed over Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4 6-1 to ensure that she would be present in the last four.
The quarter-finals on the other side of the draw see Jelena Ostapenko taking on Elena Rybakina and Kristina Mladenovic facing the eighth seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
