Coco Gauff’s fast start to the year came to an end at the Australian Open as she fell to a 7-5, 6-4 quarterfinal defeat against Paula Badosa.
The American was on a 13-match winning streak heading into Tuesday’s contest at Melbourne Park and seemed to have a strong chance of claiming her second grand slam title.
But despite a late break of serve offering a glimmer of hope, Gauff was undone by an inspired Badosa on Rod Laver Arena, with the Spaniard reaching the final four of a grand slam for the first time in her career.
“It’s tough right after and I’m still disappointed, but I think the way I played, even though it wasn’t my best, I gave it my all on the court so that’s something to be proud of,” Gauff told reporters.
“I fought ‘til the end. Some matches are going to go my way, some are not. I think it’s just one of those things that maybe a couple of years ago I would feel a lot more crushed and feel the world is ending type sadness.”
Badosa, seeded 11th at this year’s Australian Open, won a tight first set after breaking Gauff’s serve at 5-5, producing a superb backhand volley and following it up with a crushing forehand winner on the next point.
The set was wrapped up soon after that as she forced Gauff to push a forehand long – just the second time this tournament that the 20-year-old has dropped a set.
With only one break of serve in the first set, the second was a different story. Badosa took an early lead after Gauff struggled behind a string of errors on her forehand before the 2023 US Open champion hit back to level the set at 2-2.
But inconsistency continued to plague the American star’s forehand – she hit 41 unforced errors over the course of the match – and she slipped to 5-2 down after a double fault.
From there, Gauff did start to find her range, though it proved too little, too late. Badosa completed the upset with a forehand winner to seal her first victory in a grand slam quarterfinal on her third attempt.
After the match, Badosa said that she had contemplated retiring at one point last year due to a long-standing back injury.
“The back wasn’t responding well and I didn’t find solutions,” the 27-year-old told reporters. “But I wanted to give it a last try, a last chance to finish the year and let’s see how it would go.
“And well, here I am. I’m really proud of what we went through with all my team and especially how I fought through all that, especially mentally.”
Badosa will now face either two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka or Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the Australian Open semifinals on Thursday.
Source: edition.cnn.com