Linda Noskova beats Gauff to reach WTA Finals semis

Linda Noskova became the first player to reach the semi-finals of the WTA Finals after beating Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-3 in California on Tuesday. The Czech Wimbledon champion served superbly and broke the American four times in the first set alone, BBC Sport reported.

The 21-year-old, ranked eighth in the world, was playing at the season-ending event for the first time. She finished the match in style, sealing victory with an ace to book her place in the last four.

How Linda Noskova took Gauff apart

Noskova played with controlled aggression from the first point. She hit powerful winners to every corner of the court and pushed back one of the best movers on the WTA Tour, staying calm whenever Gauff threatened to build momentum.

Her consistency was just as impressive as her power. In a dominant second set she made only one unforced error, giving her opponent almost nothing for free.

Speaking on court, Noskova joked with the crowd that the cheers she was getting after the match were louder than the support she had heard during it. She said she felt she had stayed in the contest "through every moment, from beginning to end".

Gauff struggles on serve

Gauff, the world number four, had come into the match on a high after winning a three-set thriller against fellow American Jessica Pegula on Sunday. This time her serve let her down.

The key numbers from the match tell the story:

• Gauff hit eight aces but also eight double faults
• She won only six of 24 points on her second serve
• Noskova broke serve four times in the opening set
• The win was Noskova's sixth against a top-10 player this season

Despite the defeat, Gauff can still qualify for the semi-finals, and so can Pegula. You can read about Gauff's opening win in our report on Gauff's victory over Pegula.

Pegula keeps her hopes alive

Earlier in the same group, Pegula claimed her first win since September by beating Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk 6-2, 7-5. The result knocked Kostyuk out of the tournament.

Kostyuk, who has been managing a wrist injury since August, had only found out on Saturday that she would be playing as an alternate after world number one Elena Rybakina withdrew. She lost her first match to Noskova on Sunday and struggled for rhythm in a scrappy contest against Pegula that featured seven breaks of serve.

Pegula made only five unforced errors to Kostyuk's 17 as she took the first set, and she quickly went a break up in the second. Four breaks of serve followed before the American broke at 5-5 and served out the match.

How the WTA Finals format works

The WTA Finals bring together the eight best singles players of the season, split into two round-robin groups of four. Each player meets the other three in her group, and the top two from each group go through to the semi-finals. That means Gauff and Pegula will both be fighting for the one remaining semi-final place from their group in the final round of matches.

A breakthrough year

Noskova's run caps the best season of her career. She won the Berlin Open and then claimed her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon a few weeks later. Reaching the last four on her debut at the WTA Finals shows she is now firmly among the leading players in women's tennis.

The men's season is also reaching its climax. Carlos Alcaraz recently won his first Paris Masters title, as covered in our report on Alcaraz's win in Paris.

Tennis fans in Thailand can follow the rest of the WTA Finals in the early morning, Bangkok time, because of the time difference with California.

The original report was published by BBC Sport.

Image: Linda Noskova in action at the 2023 US Open in New York. Photo by Hameltion via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.