ASB Classic: Coco Gauff cruises into semifinals with win over ...

Coco Gauff was far too good for Varvara Gracheva. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Defending champion Coco Gauff has continued her inexorable march through the ASB Classic, barely breaking a sweat in her quarter-final victory over Varvara Gracheva.

Gauff needed only 53 minutes to dispatch the world No 43 on Friday, riding her powerful serve and relentless defence to roll through the match 6-1 6-1.

After taking out last year’s title in Auckland without dropping a set, the American is on track to repeat that impressive feat, setting up a semifinal clash against compatriot Emma Navarro on Saturday.

“I’m really happy with how I played,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “I was just focused on playing my game. I thought that I served really well — probably the best so far this tournament — which is something I was really working on in the offseason.”

The benefits of that work were clear today. After facing six break points — and saving five — in her emphatic win over Brenda Fruhvirtova on Thursday, Gauff was almost unstoppable on serve this afternoon.

The 19-year-old didn’t allow Gracheva a single opportunity to break and was only once even taken to deuce, in the opening game of the match.

Once that was won, and once Gauff responded by immediately breaking her outclassed opponent, her place in the final four was never in doubt.

Gracheva was playing in her first quarter-final since last June and the eighth seed had few answers as Gauff’s serve regularly exceeded speeds of 200km/h.

The 2023 US Open champion was equally imperious in her return, countering her opponent’s every move to win 15 of 29 points on Gracheva’s first serve and 11 of 17 on her second.

That determination on every point was combined with unerring shot-making that forced the Frenchwoman into regular errors, seeing Gauff convert five of seven break points in the match.

The only real danger faced by the world No 3 came from the skies, with rain threatening throughout after briefly delaying the start of the match.

Needing only 24 minutes to win the first set and breaking her opponent twice to start the second, Gauff was pleased to finish in a hurry and remain in front of the fans after the trials of 2023.

“Last year was a lot more rain so I was glad I was able to finish my match,” she said. “It is good to play in front of a full crowd — last year on the indoor court it was a bit boring.”

Gauff would be forgiven for feeling similarly about her tournament to date, being broken only once in three matches. The unenviable task of finding a way to topple her title defence will now fall on Navarro after her rain-interrupted 6-4 6-3 win over Petra Martic in the earlier quarter-final.

The American, ranked world No 31 and 10 places higher than her Croatian opponent, controlled much of the match but converted only five of 11 break points while saving half of the six she faced.

Having encountered each other as juniors, Navarro and Gauff practised together before the tournament started, and the 22-year-old was looking forward to testing herself against an “insane” athlete.

“I’d be really excited to play her,” Navarro said. “The first time we played I was maybe 15 and she was 12 or something, and the next time was a year after that. She’s obviously an amazing player.

“She covers the court super well and is really solid in her whole game — there’s not really any holes in her game. She does everything really well.”