MELBOURNE, Australia — Women’s No. 3 seed Coco Gauff’s quest for a maiden Australian Open title has been quashed by Spain’s Paula Badosa, who upset the American in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4 in their quarterfinal on Tuesday.
At times it felt like Gauff was facing two opponents; the 11th seed Badosa and herself, as she hit a staggering number of unforced errors, and struggled to control her serve.
Coming off a semifinal appearance in Melbourne last year, Gauff falls short of matching that achievement in 2025, and this becomes the third straight Slam at which the world No. 3 has failed to make the final four.
Gauff couldn’t find rhythm with her racket, or on her serve
Errors, errors, errors. That’ll be the takeaway for Gauff coming out of this quarterfinal loss — and tournament. She hit more unforced errors than four of her five opponents in Melbourne, and continued to rack up double faults in what was wayward afternoon against Badosa.
Of course, that can happen when you dictate play and the match hinges on your racket, but against Badosa the errors came home to roost in a big way. She hit 41 unforced errors, including a tournament-high 28 on her forehand.
It’s the second straight match where Gauff has been frustrated by her level of errors: After losing the first set to Badosa, Gauff struggled to refocus, and immediately lost her first service match of the second set, a 13-minute, eight-deuce marathon which ended with an ugly forehand unforced error from Gauff, and gave Badosa an edge she wouldn’t give up.
“I feel like I was making a lot [of errors], especially in the net. Yeah, I think it was a little bit the timing was a little bit off. I think I was hitting some balls too far in front almost, maybe playing a little bit too far back,” Gauff told the press after the loss.
“I felt like I was setting up a lot of the points, you know, well and just the last ball, I mean, there was one at 40-15 I think I missed the net. Yeah, there was a lot of errors on that [forehand] side.”
Gauff also leads the women’s side of the tournament for double faults, having hit 35, more than double the amount of the next highest quarterfinalists (Emma Navarro has 17; Elina Svitolina and Madison Keys, 15).
Her live-by-the-serve, die-by-the-serve style of play often works, the power and ability to send down aces does win her a lot of free points on her serve. But against Badosa, in the crucial second set, Gauff was serving at just 56%, and was winning only 24% of points on her second serve, a recipe for disaster so late in the tournament.
“I have to be aggressive. I feel like that’s when I’m playing my best. That’s how I won most of the matches so far the last few months is by playing aggressive,” she said.
Gauff continues to work on her mental game
Gauff was reasonably circumspect in her postmatch press conference, saying she was “obviously disappointed, but not completely crushed.”
Something she’s been trying to work on over the past six-to-nine months has been detaching herself from the expectations of others, and instead focusing on her own, internal expectations.
“Yeah, I guess you just have to realize that most of the internet coaches never coached anyone at my level or never played. So it’s one of those things. It’s easier to look on the outside, you know, all those things when you are playing and you’re commentating. You’ll hear not commentators, but people saying, ‘Oh, she should have made this or he should have made that,'” she said.
“Even when I’m watching, I do that. Obviously when you’re out there, it’s different. I think that’s really the thing that I just take from it is I’m the one out there, and I’m the one who makes the decision at the end of the day. If people want to say things, it is what it is. I take it with a grain of salt. Some people do mean well, so I don’t look at it as all bad.
“I’m proud of myself, and that’s all I can say. I promise that I’m going to continue to try my best to improve and live up to my own expectations of myself and whatever everybody else has … I can’t control that.”
As for her immediate future? Gauff indicated she’s not going all-in on ranking points this season, instead looking at the majors as the biggest goals for 2025.
“I’m going to go home and take a break. I’ve been playing a lot of tennis basically since the end of last year. So, yeah, take like a week off or something like that and then get back to work and get better,” she said of her next few weeks.
“I don’t think Doha and Dubai is a priority … Obviously the next thing is French Open, so try to progress for that.”
Don’t discount Badosa
The former world No. 2 says she’s playing even better tennis now than before her wretched run with a back injury in 2023 and 2024 which resulted in her dropping way down the rankings outside the top 100.
And it’s shown, not just against Gauff but all tournament. The Spaniard has been pushed to three sets just once this tournament, against Marta Kostyuk in the third round, and has otherwise looked extremely comfortable thus far.
“Do I feel as if I’m back where I belong? Yeah, of course,” she said after the match on Tuesday. “I mean, since I came back last year here in Australia, my goal, I said it here last January, I wanted to be the comeback of the year. I achieved that. When I started this year, I also said I want to be one of the best players in the world and prove that, show that, and be consistent. That’s my goal for this year also.”
It’s her first career major win against a top 10-ranked opponent (she was 0-3 entering today), and now into her first major semifinal, Badosa has the opportunity to become the first Spanish woman to make a Slam final since Garbine Muguruza in 2020 here in Melbourne.
She will face either Aryna Sabalenka or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the semis on Thursday.
