Aryna Sabalenka vs Coco Gauff
Jan 25, 2024
Aryna Sabalenka -204 / Coco Gauff +165 Click Here for the Latest Odds
Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka will face fourth seed Coco Gauff in the semifinal of the 2024 Australian Open. The match will be played on Thursday, January 25, 2024. Here's our Aryna Sabalenka vs Coco Gauff prediction.
Aryna Sabalenka
Aryna Sabalenka continues to live up to the billing as a big-stage player. It is now six consecutive Grand Slam semifinals for the Belarusian powerhouse, who has effortlessly decimated the field to reach the business end of the Australian Open. Sabalenka stands two wins away from defending the crown she won 12 months ago and could become the first player to retain the Australian Open women's tournament since Victoria Azarenka back in 2013, who incidentally hails from Belarus. To put into context just how dominant Sabalenka's run to the semis has been, she has dropped a grand total of 16 games in five matches, a run which includes three bagel sets. She has not dropped more than three games in a set and dismissed former French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova with embarrassing ease in the quarterfinal on Tuesday.
Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff is just the second teenager this century to win 12 consecutive Grand Slam matches. It is a streak that dates back to last year's US Open when she won her first Grand Slam title, beating Aryna Sabalenka in the championship match. For that winning run to continue, she'll need to defeat the Belarusian again, but nothing from her last performance suggests she will do so. Gauff was far from her free-flowing best in beating Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk, needing over three hours to get the job done in a match littered with three-digit unforced errors. Can the young American overcome that mishap?
Aryna Sabalenka vs Coco Gauff prediction
The odds continue to be overwhelmingly in Sabalenka's favor, having performed better than every WTA player at the Grand Slam level since the start of 2023. However, the Coco Gauff puzzle is developing into a kryptonite for Sabalenka, who has lost four of their six meetings, including last year's US Open final. Could this be more of a mental block for Sabalenka? Possibly. But she's been supremely consistent in winning her matches during the fortnight that it it hard to dispute she is the woman to beat. Unless she truly has an off day, this looks like her match for the taking.