Aiming to change into the primary participant since Naomi Osaka three years in the past to win back-to-back majors, Gauff had breezed into the Australian Open final eight with a sequence of medical and composed performances.
Nonetheless, her show towards world quantity 37 Kostyuk – the highest-ranked participant she has confronted thus far – was removed from convincing.
Each gamers regarded tight and tense in a match the place they made 107 unforced errors in a complete of 246 factors.
The three-hour contest featured 16 breaks of serve and Gauff took 9 of them – together with three within the decider.
{The teenager} has regarded a different proposition over the past six months, taking part in with extra confidence and belief in her skill beneath the steerage of famend coach Brad Gilbert.
Exhibiting extra religion in her beforehand shaky forehand has been a key consider her renaissance after a chastening first-round exit at Wimbledon final 12 months.
Since then, Gauff has misplaced solely 4 matches and stays unbeaten at first of the 2024 season.
However that outdated failing reappeared, significantly within the second set, as Gauff needed to dig deep to discover a well past Kostyuk.
On her resilience, Gauff mentioned: “I used to be simply making an attempt to get another sport within the first set, make it aggressive after which one sport became one other.
“Within the second, I gave myself alternatives however grew to become a bit of bit passive and after I got here out within the third I used to be simply making an attempt to play aggressive and hit by the court docket.”