Americans Amanda Anisimova, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula reached the semifinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships along with Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina on Thursday.
The second-seeded Anisimova will meet the fourth-seeded Pegula, and the third-seeded Gauff will take on No. 7 seed Svitolina on Friday in the WTA 1000 tournament in the United Arab Emirates.
Gauff will be the most rested of the foursome after her 6-0, 6-2 victory against Alexandra Eala of the Philippines in 67 minutes on Thursday. The other three quarterfinal matches all went to three sets.
“Each match, I’ve gotten better,” Gauff said. “I definitely wasn’t in good spirits before entering this tournament, but you know, one match can change everything. I honestly didn’t think I would be in the semis at the start of this, but I’m happy that I’m here.”
Gauff, who overcame eight double faults, won the first 10 games of the match and converted six of nine break points. She finished with 15 winners and 19 unforced errors, compared to eight winners and 33 errors for Eala.
Anisimova survived a two-hour, 38-minute battle with defending champion and No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia, winning 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) to set up her clash with Pegula.
Andreeva had a 3-1 lead in the final set before Anisimova took the next four games for a 5-3 lead. Not going away, Andreeva survived a match point and won the next three games. Anisimova jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak and finally prevailed on her fourth match point.
Andreeva, 18, doubled over in tears after her final backhand sailed long.
“It was such a tough battle, and I thought we played incredible tennis,” Anisimova said. “Seeing Mirra down like that, it’s understandable. We both fought so hard today, and it made me emotional seeing her like that. She was playing so well, she’s the defending champion and I feel like we both won on the court today. These type of matches, it’s always tough that someone has to lose at the end of the day.”
Pegula outlasted 12th-seeded Clara Tauson of Denmark 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in just under two hours, while Svitolina rallied for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win against Croatia’s Antonia Ruzic in just over two hours.
Pegula struck eight aces and saved four of six break points. Svitolina balanced five aces with seven double faults while saving 11 of 14 break points.
This is only the third time three U.S. players reached the final four at a WTA 1000 event since the format’s introduction in 2009: Beijing 2025 (Gauff, Pegula, Anisimova) and Toronto 2024 (Emma Navarro, Anisimova and Pegula).
–Field Level Media
