MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Coco Gauff the retooled forehand and serve abandoned her in the worst way and at the worst time ever. Australian Open. Unforced errors continued to pile up on Tuesday, as did double faults and break points, often followed by a palm placed over his eyes or a slap on the thigh.
Add it all up, and Gauff’s trip to Melbourne Park – and his 13-game winning streak dating back to the end of last season – ended in the quarter-finals. Never managing to take control on a hot afternoon at Rod Laver Arena, the 2023 US Open champion was eliminated by Spaniard No. 11 Paula Badosa 7-5, 6-4.
With tweaks to some key shots and a change in her coaching staff after a disappointing end to her title defense in New York in September, Gauff, 20, arrived in Australia with hopes of winning a second Grand Slam title.
“I feel like at the US Open I was playing without a solution, so it was more frustrating. Today, I feel like I’m playing with solutions; I know what I need to work on. US Open, I needed to work on my serve. I’m not saying my department is where I want it to be, but I’ve been working on it; obviously, a big improvement. So I want to keep working on that, keep playing aggressively,” Gauff said.
“So I feel like I’m on the right track, on the right path,” she said. “Even though I lost today, I feel like I’m on an upward trajectory.”
The American entered Tuesday with a 9-0 record in 2025; she also won her last four matches of last season to win the trophy at the WTA final in November.
“There’s still a lot of work to do,” Gauff said after the one-hour, 43-minute loss to Badosa, who was 0-2 in Grand Slam quarterfinals. “I’m obviously disappointed, but I’m not completely crushed.”
Badosa is now heading to her first Grand Slam semi-final at age 27 – and less than a year later, she was considering retirement due to a stress fracture in her back that took forever to heal and did not initially respond to cortisone injections.
“I wanted to (give) one last try,” Badosa said, “Well, here I am. So I’m really proud of what we went through with my whole team and especially how I fought through it all , especially mentally.
She was injured during training at the Rome tournament in May 2023, shortly after starting work with coach Pol Toledo. A year later, after several months off the tour, problems persisted.
“The reality is that the rear was not responding. We haven’t found a solution. Paula was frustrated,” Toledo said. “I said to myself: this isn’t working. I don’t know what we should do.
Relying on a new doctor, fitness trainer and nutritionist, Badosa tried different exercises and supplements, and his back improved.
“The puzzle,” she said, “started to look better.” »
On Tuesday, she kept the pressure on Gauff, who finished with 41 unforced errors, including six double faults and 28 forehand misses. Badosa compiled 10 break points and won four of Gauff’s service games. Gauff, meanwhile, never earned a single break point until he had already lost a set and a break.
A key match – and one that illustrated Gauff’s problems this afternoon – began the second set. It lasted for 22 points spread over more than a dozen minutes, and Badosa converted her fifth break chance after Gauff missed two consecutive forehands.
Of Badosa’s 12 points in this match, 11 came from Gauff errors, including seven errant forehands.
“Today,” Gauff said, “she did better in those key moments.”
When Badosa finished the quarterfinal with a forehand winner, she placed her hand over her mouth, then knelt on the ground and bowed her head. It was a big moment for someone who reached a career-best ranking of No. 2 in 2022, but only now believes she has reached her full potential.
“Emotionally, I wanted it so bad,” Badosa said. “I will never feel freedom until I win the tournament. I’m always like this. It’s my personality. This is my character.
In Thursday’s semi-final, she will face either her close friend, number 1 Aryna Sabalenkathe double reigning champion in Melbourne, or No. 27 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the finalist at Roland-Garros 2021. Their quarter-final took place on Tuesday evening.
This was to be followed by the most anticipated match of the day: Novak Djokovic vs. Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s quarter-finals.
Djokovic37, is aiming for an 11th Australian Open trophy and a record 25th Grand Slam singles title. Alcaraz is looking to complete a Grand Slam career at 21 by adding a championship in Australia to those he already has: two at Wimbledon plus one each at the US Open and Roland Garros.
The other men’s quarterfinal of the day pitted No. 2 Alexander Zverev against No. 12 Tommy Paul.
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis editor since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
