MELBOURNE, Australia — Coco Gauff is out of the Australian Open.
On a hot, sun-drenched Rod Laver Arena day that looked tailored to her strengths, and in a matchup when she is the Grand Slam veteran, Gauff lost to Paula Badosa of Spain. Badosa, who returned from a potentially career-ending injury at this year’s Wimbledon, pulled off the biggest Grand Slam win of her career, beating the 20-year-old American 7-5, 6-4.
Gauff fell victim to her once-again shaky forehand, but also to an emboldened Badosa, who followed the aggressive approach that Gauff’s opponents have employed over the past 10 days and four, now five matches.
After three months of watching Gauff going on the attack to win nearly every match and tournament that she played, her rivals have started to realize that they can no longer rely on Gauff’s weaknesses beating herself. They have to attack her before she attacks them.
Badosa said that was her plan after her fourth-round match. That was the easy part; she did the hard part too and executed it. Badosa seized on every shortish ball — and plenty that were not so short — and hoped that enough of them would hit their targets. Gauff tried to meet Badosa’s power with her own and they played like two prize fighters, with no interest in dancing around each other. They just wanted to swing out.
Gauff looked like she was going to put Badosa on the ropes midway through the first set, but she never earned a break point and by the end of the set the once-weak forehand, that had been mostly stable the last few months after she adjusted her approach, was beginning to wilt under Badosa’s pressure.
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The match turned with Gauff serving at 5-5 in the first set, as Badosa and Gauff played the best point of the match, with Gauff chasing down Badosa’s attacks and Badosa earning her opening with a nifty half-volley off what looked like a sure passing shot from Gauff. A soft drop volley had the American clapping for her and two more bold forehands on the next point gave her the break before she served out the set.
Paula Badosa exorcized her Grand Slam demons in Melbourne. (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)
Gauff, who left the court after the first set, looked like she might make a surge early in the second. After losing her first service game, she broke back and tied the set at two games all, but with the error big still biting her she relinquished her serve again and went down 5-2.
Badosa entered this quarterfinal with scar tissue she has been trying to heal ever since returning to tennis. In the last eight of the 2024 U.S. Open against Emma Navarro, she had a 5-1 lead in the second set having lost the first. She lost six games in a row and said, Rafael-Nadal style, that she had “done a disaster.” Even Navarro said she didn’t believe a third set was coming when she couldn’t afford to lose another game.
“I came in, I wanted to play my best game. I think I did it,” Badosa said on court.
”A year ago I was here with my back and didn’t know if I would have to retire from this sport,” she said.
It showed in a missed drive volley from which she escaped, and showed again as she tried to serve out the match. Gauff grabbed the game and served at 3-5 down, stealing a point she should have lost when Badosa smacked an overhead right to her racket. She held from 40-30 and put the pressure back on the Spaniard.
An ace to open the final game signaled her intent, and another took her to 40-15. A forehand-plus-one into the open court sealed it, and she fell to her knees, the demons from New York exorcized.
When it was over, the numbers told the story. Gauff had six double faults and 35 unforced errors on her groundstrokes. Badosa had just two double faults and 20 unforced errors from the ground; she forced 22 errors out of Gauff, compared to 17.
Gauff can take some solace in moving one round further, than she did the last two Grand Slams, But after winning the WTA Tour Finals, she doesn’t play Grand Slams to make quarterfinals. She arrives planning to be alive in the final weekend. She will have to wait for for the French Open in May to have another shot at that.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
