Caroline Garcia beats Coco Gauff to reach US Open Grand Slam semifinals
Caroline Garcia knows how it can feel to be a teen in tennis getting a ton of attention and outsized expectations, the way Coco Gauff does now.
One big difference: Garcia, now 28, became an overnight sensation more than a decade ago thanks to one particularly noteworthy performance on a big stage and long before she achieved the sorts of things Gauff has at 18.
On Tuesday night at the U.S. Open, Garcia took charge and never really let Gauff or the crowd get fully involved. From the get-go, Garcia played high-stakes tennis and put strokes where she wanted, sometimes right at Gauff's feet, sometimes well out of reach, and reached the first Grand Slam semifinal of her career with a 6-3, 6-4 victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"It kind of got away from me," said the 12th-seeded Gauff, an American who reached the French Open final in June. "It was all her. ... I was striking the ball really clean. You're playing someone, off the bat, they're standing on top of the baseline and ripping ...