Gauff powers past Pegula to reach semifinals at Eastbourne

Coco Gauff powered past her doubles partner Jessica Pegula to reach the semifinals at the Eastbourne International on Thursday. Wet weather delayed the start of play at the Wimbledon warm-up tournament before Gauff wasted little time in beating third-seeded Pegula 6-3, 6-3 in an all-American match.

The 19-year-old fifth seed is the highest-ranked player remaining in the tournament. Gauff next plays compatriot Madison Keys. It will be the third semifinal appearance of the year for Gauff after Auckland and Dubai.

Keys won five games in a row during a 6-4, 6-1 victory in the quarterfinals over Croatian lucky loser Petra Martic.

Second-seeded Caroline Garcia’s right shoulder injury caused her to retire while trailing Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 2-1. Camila Giorgi awaits Kasatkina in the semifinals. The Italian also benefited from a retirement, with Birmingham champion Jelena Ostapenko pulling out of their match after losing the opening set 7-6 (8).

In the men’s draw, Argentinian fourth seed Francisco Cerundolo beat China’s Zhizhen Zhang 6-2, 6-3 to reach the first grass-court semifinal game of his career.

Cerundolo’s last-four opponent will be American Mackenzie McDonald, a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 winner against Swede Mikael Ymer.

Tommy Paul will play Gregoire Barrere in the other semifinal. Paul edged a thrilling three-set match with fellow American JJ Wolf, winning 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (2), while Frenchman Barrere upset eighth-seeded Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 7-5, 7-6 (2).