U.S. tennis star Coco Gauff is within sniffing distance of a second coronation in the Queen City, delivering a superb display of tennis against No. 10 seed Marta Kostyuk in the women’s singles quarter-finals at the 2026 Cincinnati Open on Friday (21 August).
Powering past the 24-year-old two-time Grand Slam singles semi-finalist in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, she advanced to the semi-finals where she’ll face Czechia’s Sara Bejlek, who beat North American star Madison Keys earlier in the day, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).
The win marked the continuation of a remarkable turnaround for Gauff, who appeared to be on the ropes in her opening match against Liudmila Samsonova in the second round, dropping the first set 2-6 before staging a comeback to keep her title hopes alive.
Since then, she’s yet to drop another set. She came close against Ann Li in the third round, winning the tiebreak to end the match in straight sets, but she’s only grown in strength since those early round wake up calls in Ohio.
And while it hasn’t always been pretty, there’s no denying a certain beauty to her game against Kostyuk on Friday, which saw Gauff quell the service line troubles that plagued her in the early rounds, winning 78 percent of first-serve points and giving away no more than three double faults in a match that lasted less than 75 minutes.
But none of that is what Gauff chose to highlight in her post-match press conference. Instead, she credited her victory to a growing confidence at the net. “I didn’t realize how good I was at it until Wimbledon,” she told reporters.
“Everyone has been telling me to come to the net more,” she added. “Chris Evert has [even] been texting me sometimes to come to the net more. And I tell her ‘yeah, I’m going to,’ and then I just don’t. I finally did at Wimbledon and I won so many points that way.”
It remains to be seen if this newfound strength will propel Gauff to a second Cincinnati Open title ahead of the 2026 US Open, but it’s clear she’s only partially through a major transformation on the court – with an eye on winning more frequently.
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/cincinnati-open-2026-coco-gauff-beats-marta-kostyuk
