Coco Gauff had the last laugh when her opponent’s husband came to their match wearing a cap that made fun of the American. The world No. 4 survived a marathon match against Marta Kostyuk, coming back from 1-5 down in the opening set to win 7-6(8) 6-7(3) 6-2.
Gauff reached her maiden Australian Open semi-final on Tuesday, needing three hours and eight minutes to see off Kostyuk. The 19-year-old is still yet to lose a match this season, as she started the year by defending her title in Auckland and now finds herself in the last eight in Melbourne.
Kostyuk was competing in her first Grand Slam quarter-final and her husband came prepared for the occasion, making reference to the Ukrainian’s opponent. Watching on from his wife’s box, Heorhii donned a cap that said ‘shake your cocos’.
Fans slammed his cringe attire while Gauff let her tennis do the talking, stealing the first set from Kostyuk. The world No. 37 raced into a 5-1 lead but the teenager stormed back, winning the next five games in a row. The set went to a tiebreak where Gauff took it 10-8.
They traded more breaks in the second set but Kostyuk came out on top, winning the tiebreak 7-3. Gauff went into another gear in the final set, leading 5-0 with the chance to serve for the bagel. But the 21-year-old got one final break of serve before Gauff closed it out at the second opportunity.
Heorhii’s hat still didn’t go down well on social media, as one Reddit user wrote: “I was cringing at this.” Another replied: “And at the fact that it’s her husband. She would have probably known in advance that he was going to wear that, and if she did it’s even more cringe.”
Fans also didn’t find it funny, with a third user writing: “Yikes, this is so… dumb. How stupid do you have to be to think this is funny, or in any way a good idea?” And it appeared that Gauff herself caught wind of the cap, as she posted a video from the match onto her Instagram story and wrote: “shakey shake” with a heart and a laughing emoji.
While some thought her husband was disrespectful, Kostyuk herself claimed that Gauff was one of the world’s best players after the close contest. The world No. 37 said she won for herself despite coming out on the losing end of the match and later elaborated. “Yeah, for me, it’s a win because I managed to, you know, I was playing one of the best girls in the world,” she explained.
“Managed to be still very close. You know, it feels far but also very close. This whole tournament I think is a big win for me. Just looking forward.” While Kostyuk will try to carry her Australian Open form into the rest of the season, Gauff will now focus on facing either Aryna Sabalenka or Barbora Krejcikova in the semi-final. If she plays Sabalenka, it will be a rematch of the recent US Open final.