Australian Open 2026: Elina ousts Gauff, to challenge Sabalenka in semis

The world number 12, Elina Svitolina, ousted the world number three and two-time Grand Slam winner Coco Gauff to advance to her maiden Australian Open semifinal on Tuesday.

The 19-time WTA tour-level titlist, yet to win her first-ever Grand Slam, took a big step ahead in her pursuit of glory, booking the clash against world number one Aryna Sabalenka.

With this win, Elina has extended her winning streak to 10 matches, beating Gauff in straight sets by 6-1, 6-2 in a shockingly one-sided clash in the quarterfinals.

This is her fourth career semifinal at a Grand Slam, and her first at the Australian Open, with two semifinal finishes at Wimbledon and one at the US Open already in her record.

 

Elina, who had ended her season prematurely in 2025 "to heal and recharge" and the 31-year-old has been in fine form since her return, securing her 19th title at Auckland earlier this month and is on the third-longest win streak of her career (In 2017, she won 15 matches in a row, and in 2025 she won 11 straight.), as per WTA's official website.

She has dropped just one set so far, against Sonay Kartal during the Auckland quarterfinals. This victory seals for her a return to top 10 in the WTA Rankings for the first time since October 2021.

"Not bad, not bad at all. Always been my dream to come back in n Top 10 after maternity leave, that's always been my goal," she said as per WTA's official website.

Earlier, Sabalenka crushed 18-year-old American Iva Jovic's Australian Open dream run, securing a 6-3, 6-0 victory on Rod Laver Arena in under 90 minutes.

This win in Melbourne on Tuesday marked Sabalenka's fourth consecutive Australian Open semifinal and 14th Grand Slam semifinal, as per the WTA Tour website.

"She's a young, great player. Super happy to get this win in straight sets, happy with the level I played today and yeah, (she's an) amazing player," Sabalenka said after her match.

"The second set, I felt like I had to step in and put even more pressure on her. Because I can see that she's young, she's hungry, and I could tell during the match that no matter the score, she's still going to be there trying," Sabalenka added.

Jovic, who at 18 is the youngest player to reach the last eight at the Australian Open without dropping a set since Venus Williams in 1998.

Earlier, Sabalenka stormed into the women's singles quarterfinals of the ongoing Australian Open 2026 tournament on Sunday. The top-seeded player thrashed World No.17 Victoria Mboko in straight sets 6-1, 7-6(1) in a one-sided match on Rod Laver Arena.

The two-time Australian Open champion won her 20th consecutive tiebreak at Grand Slam level, eclipsing an almost two-decade old record owned by Novak Djokovic, who won 19 straight tiebreaks at majors between Wimbledon 2005 and 2007.