NEW YORK — Caroline Garcia reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at age 28 by beating 18-year-old American Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-4 at the U.S. Open on Tuesday night.

The 17th-seeded Garcia took charge at the start and never relented in a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the 12th-seeded Gauff at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“I just go for my shots,” Garcia said, “even when I’m stressed.”

She had lost both of her two previous matches against Gauff, who was the runner-up at the French Open in June, but was by far the better player this time.Garcia, who is from France, hasn’t ceded a set at Flushing Meadows so far this year and stretched her winning streak to 13 matches overall, solidifying her status as someone playing as well as anyone in women’s tennis at the moment.

She finished last year ranked 74th, but now is projected to rise into the top 10 next week.

“The last couple of months,” Garcia said, “I feel healthy again.”

Garcia will face Wimbledon runner-up Ons Jabeur on Thursday with a berth in the final at stake.

“I’m looking forward to the next challenge and what I can achieve,” Garcia said.
Jabeur advanced to her first semifinal in New York with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over the player who beat Serena Williams in the third round, Ajla Tomljanovic.

Jabeur is the first woman representing an African nation to get to the final four of the U.S. Open during the professional era, which began in 1968.

“Just trying to do my job and hopefully I inspire more and more generations from Africa,” Jabeur said. “It really means a lot to me.”

She said her run to the title match at the All England Club allowed her to “believe more in myself” and realize, “I had it in me that I can win a Grand Slam.”

As for chucking her racket during the match against Tomljanovic, Jabeur joked sheepishly that the equipment “kept slipping away from my hand.”

In the men’s draw, Casper Ruud is making a run, finally. He headed into the 2022 season with just one Grand Slam appearance that lasted as far as the fourth round anywhere and was determined to improve his record at the four majors.

Then, a day before the Australian Open began in January, he twisted his ankle in practice and needed to withdraw.

Hardly ideal.

Just look at him now: Ruud is into the semifinals at the U.S. Open and has a shot at moving up to No. 1 in the ATP rankings, following a run to the final at the French Open.

The 23-year-old from Norway, who is coached by his father, former professional player, Christian, parlayed what he called “a better start than I ever had before in a match” to a 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini in the quarterfinals under a closed roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“During Paris, something clicked, and I feel like I, this year, have sort of figured out the better way how to play five sets and knowing that it’s very different from playing best-of-three sets. … Sometimes realizing, or knowing, that you can sort of let one set go every once in a while to save some energy for the rest of the sets,” the No. 5-seeded Ruud said. “So I think I matured and learned how to play five sets better than I did last year.”

He improved to 12-2 in Grand Slam competition in 2022 after making just two unforced errors in the first set, 11 fewer than No. 13 Berrettini.

Berrettini’s take: “After 20 minutes I was (down) 5-0. I don’t know how really. I don’t know what happened.”

Ruud now will face the winner of the quarterfinal scheduled for late Tuesday night between Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios – who eliminated defending champion Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round – and No. 27 Karen Khachanov.