MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Coco Gauff's retooled forehand and serve abandoned her in the worst way and at the worst time at the Australian Open. The unforced errors just kept accumulating, and so did the double-faults and break points, often followed by a palm placed over her eyes or a slap to a thigh.
Add it all up, and Gauff's trip to Melbourne Park — and her 13-match winning streak that dated to late last season — ended in the quarterfinals. Never able to take control on a hot afternoon in Rod Laver Arena, the 2023 U.S. Open champion was eliminated by No. 11 Paula Badosa of Spain 7-5, 6-4.
Using tweaks to some key strokes, and a change to her coaching team after a disappointing end to her title defense in New York in September, the 20-year-old Gauff arrived in Australia with hopes of earning a second Grand Slam title.
“I feel like (at the) U.S. Open, I was playing with no solution, so that was more the frustrating part. Today, I feel like I’m playing with solutions; I know what I need to work on. U.S. Open, I needed to work on my serve. Not saying that my serve is where I want it to be, but I worked on it; obviously a big improvement. So I want to continue working on that, continue working on playing aggressive,” Gauff said.
“So I feel like I’m on the road to the right way, right path,” she said. “Even though I lost today, I feel like I’m in 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 collect the trophy at the WTA Finals in November.
“Just a lot more work to do,” Gauff said after the 1-hour, 43-minute loss to Badosa, who had been 0-2 in Grand Slam quarterfinals. “I’m obviously disappointed, but I’m not completely crushed.”
Badosa now heads to her first Grand Slam semifinal at age 27.
“I'm a bit emotional,” Badosa said. “I wanted to play my best tennis. I think I did. … I’m super proud of the level I gave today.”
She kept the pressure on Gauff, who only briefly managed to showcase her skills. Gauff finished with 41 unforced errors, a total that included six double-faults — including on the last point of the game that put Badosa ahead 5-2 in the second set — and 28 missed forehands.
Gauff had to contend with 10 break points and lost four of her 11 service games. She never earned so much as a single break point while returning until after she already trailed by a set and a break.
One key game — and one that illustrated Gauff’s problems on this afternoon — started the second set. It lasted 22 points spread over more than a dozen minutes, and Badosa converted her fifth break chance after Gauff missed two forehands in a row.
Of Badosa’s 12 points in that game, 11 came via mistakes by Gauff, including seven errant forehands.
“Today,” Gauff said, “she did better in those key moments.”
That sort of thing kept happening, and Gauff didn't try to hide her dismay. After one error, she dropped her racket to the blue court.
When Badosa ended the quarterfinal with a forehand winner, she placed her hand over her mouth, then knelt on the ground. This was a big moment for someone who reached a career-best ranking of No. 2 in 2022, but then dealt with a serious back injury that made her contemplate ending her tennis career.
“I would never think that, a year after, I would be here,” Badosa said. “I’ve been through a lot. In the past, I was one of the best players in the world.”
She next will go up against No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion in Melbourne, or No. 27 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the runner-up at the 2021 French Open. Their quarterfinal was to be played Tuesday night.
That was scheduled to be followed by the day's most-anticipated matchup: Novak Djokovic vs. Carlos Alcaraz in the men's quarterfinals.
Djokovic, 37, is aiming for an 11th Australian Open trophy and a record 25th Grand Slam singles title overall. Alcaraz seeks to complete a career Grand Slam at age 21 by adding a championship in Australia to the ones he already owns: two from Wimbledon plus one apiece from the U.S. Open and French Open.
The day's other men's quarterfinal was No. 2 Alexander Zverev against No. 12 Tommy Paul.
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press