Gauff rolls past Bencic to enter semifinals

Coco Gauff stormed into her fourth semifinal of 2023 with a straight set 6-1, 6-2 victory over Belinda Bencic at the Citi Open.

The third-seeded American needed just one hour and 28 minutes to defeat the No.6 seed and advance to set up a match against defending champion Liudmila Samsonova, who is vying for her second final of the season and first since winning the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand in the season's first week.

"I'm really happy with how I played today. Belinda is not an easy player to play. I played all types of tennis. I was the aggressor in some moments. Some moments I was the defender. This definitely is probably one of the top matches that I have played. ... I think with the caliber of player and the way I played, this is definitely one of the top ones," WTA.com quoted Gauff as saying after the match.

"This is the tennis that I have been trying to play. I don't know if I'm a hard critic on myself, but I feel like I could do better in a lot of moments today even though the scoreline seemed easier, but I don't think the scoreline reflected the level of the match today," she added.

Gauff slammed with 17 wins to 16 unforced errors. Bencic hit 14 winners but was undone by 26 unforced errors.

Gauff will face Samsonova in the semifinals for the third time overall, and for the first time since 2021. In both of those matches, she came back from a set down to win.

Elsewhere, top-seeded Jessica Pegula scripted a fine comeback from a set down to advance to her fifth semifinal of 2023 at the Citi Open, beating wild card Elina Svitolina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 8 minutes.

Pegula will next face either No.4 seed Maria Sakkari.

"I think we play very similar -- very solid from both sides -- so I knew it was going to be a tough match," she said in the on-court interview.

"[I have] tons of respect for her [Elina Svitolina]. She just had a baby, and everything she's going through with her country. I told her it was like she came back a new person. You can see the competitiveness in her and I've always really respected that," she added.

"She was one of my first big wins when I broke through a couple of years ago, and to beat someone as tough as her gave me a lot of confidence. I always had a lot of respect for how she competes and her attitude on court," top-seeded Jessica Pegula said.