“It was a hot one in here tonight, wasn’t it guys?” Shelton told the crowd after the match. With so much firepower still left in the tank, Shelton did not back down as he closed out the victory with his 50th winner of the contest to book a semi-final showdown with 23-time major champion Novak Djokovic. Tiafoe responded well to take the second before the pair engaged in a roller coaster third set that saw them trade a combined six breaks of serve before Shelton grabbed the tiebreak, despite hitting two double faults at crucial moments, to secure the 69-minute frame. Shelton, who was a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open earlier this year, had an explosive start, dropping just three points behind his first serve and four behind his second to scoop the first set in 40 minutes. But honestly, I didn't really feel much better.” I thought today I was going to wake up and feel better. “Yesterday the whole day I felt very low energy. I think it's really hard to recover from those night matches, because after beating world No.1, I went to sleep at, like, 5:00 in the morning, and still, you sleep for, I don't know, maybe like seven, eight hours, but you completely don't recover,” said the 20th-seeded Ostapenko. “Today was not really good match from me. The Latvian former Roland-Garros champion landed just 38 percent of her first serves in, and committed 36 unforced errors against 12 winners. The 19-year-old needed just 68 minutes on Tuesday to dismiss Ostapenko, whose level was nowhere close to how she played during her three-set victory over world No.1 Iga Swiatek on Sunday night. But I'm really proud of how I'm able to get through these matches,” added Gauff. I don't know if it's because I've been tricking myself or maybe when this is over I'm going to hit a wall. Gauff has spent 9hr 19min on court in singles so far this fortnight, and another four and a half hours across doubles and mixed doubles (she is through to the doubles quarter-finals alongside Jessica Pegula). Obviously I'm physically fresh and emotionally fresh, and I think that just came from experience.” “Right now I feel emotionally fresh, which I think was the problem in the past in Grand Slams, I would emotionally be drained. Always had the physical endurance but it built my mental endurance,” said the world No.6, who won D.C and Cincinnati in the build up to the US Open. So I think doing well in those tournaments built my mental endurance. to Montreal to Cincinnati, that was a long type of swing. “I think what's helping is playing from D.C. Gauff says she is using her experience from making the final in Paris last season and has adjusted her approach to the closing stretch of this tournament, telling herself there is still a long way to go from now until hopefully lifting the US Open trophy. The Floridian has won 16 of her last 17 matches – and her last 10 in a row (longest streak of her career) – and will be looking to reach her third final in four tournaments when she takes on Karolina Muchova in the semis on Thursday. This will be Gauff’s first appearance in the final four in New York, and is her best result at a Grand Slam since her runner-up finish at Roland-Garros last year. “I'm still trying not to think about it a lot, because I don't want to get my head big or add pressure, but it is a cool moment to have that stat alongside her.” I think if you told me when I was younger that I would be in these same stat lines as her, I would freak out. I'm just really honoured to be in the same sentence as her,” said Gauff when asked about her most recent accomplishment that saw her emulate Williams. I mean, she's the greatest player of all time, I'm nothing close to that yet. The 19-year-old American on Tuesday became the first teenager to reach the US Open semi-finals since Serena Williams in 2001, thanks to a 6-0, 6-2 rout of Jelena Ostapenko. Coco Gauff is used to seeing her name mentioned in the same sentence as some of the sport’s greatest legends, as the youngest since, or first since, to achieve a certain feat that doesn’t make it any less cool though each time it happens.
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