Jan 19, 2025; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Coco Gauff of United States of America plays a backhand during her match against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in the fourth round of the women’s singles at the 2025 Australian Open at Melbourne Park. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images
Coco Gauff’s unbeaten start to 2025 came to an end, as did her hopes of winning the Australian Open.
Gauff, the third seed, 9-0 on the year and undefeated in 13 consecutive matches at the start of the day, was swept by Spain’s Paula Badosa, the 11th seed, 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-final in Melbourne on Tuesday.
The 2023 US Open champion dominated most of the statistics, but was hampered by errors. In particular, he committed six double faults to Badosa’s two and almost doubled Badosa in unforced errors (41-23).
The first ten games were very close, with only two break points (both by Badosa in the third game, won by Gauff), but the 27-year-old Badosa finally broke the 20-year-old Gauff’s serve in the eleventh game. and took the set in the next game.
Gauff, the third-ranked player in the world, failed again on her serve, this time giving up serve in the first game of the second set. He got it back by breaking Badosa’s serve to make the score 2-2, but immediately lost his next service game. Gauff soon fell 5-2 behind, a deficit he could not overcome.
-“Today I came wanting to play my best game and I think I achieved it,” Badosa said after the game. “Coco, at the beginning, was playing incredible tennis, but I am super proud of the level I gave (on Tuesday).
“A year ago I was here with a back injury that I didn’t know if I had to retire from this sport, and now I’m here, playing against the best in the world… I’m in the semifinals and I never thought that a year later I’d be here “.
Badosa, the 2024 WTA Comeback Player of the Year, earned her first career top-10 victory at a Grand Slam and will face the winner of the quarterfinal match between top seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, and 27th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. The match will be played later on Tuesday.
–Field level media
