Melbourne, Australia – Spain’s Paula Badosa crushed women’s third seed Coco Gauff’s quest to win her first title at the Australian Open, after she defeated the American in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
At times it seemed as if Gauff was facing two opponents. Badosa was seeded 11th and herself, committing a surprising number of unforced errors, and struggled to control her serve.
After a semi-final appearance in Melbourne last year, Gauff is unable to achieve the feat in 2025, and this becomes the third consecutive tournament in which the world number three has failed to reach the semi-finals.
Gauff couldn’t find the rhythm with her racket or her serve
Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes. That would be the final result of Gauff coming off a quarterfinal loss — and the championship. She committed more unforced errors than four of her five opponents in Melbourne, and continued to commit double faults in the afternoon against Badosa.
Of course, that can happen when you decide the style of play and the match depends on your racket, but the errors against Badosa were evident in a big way. She made 41 unforced errors, including a tournament-high 28 on a forehand.
It’s the second match in a row that Gauff has been frustrated by the level of errors she’s made: After losing the first set to Badosa, Gauff struggled to refocus, promptly dropping her first service game of the second set, a 13-minute, eight-set marathon. Which ended with an ugly forehand, an unintentional error from Gauff, and gave Badosa an advantage that she would not give up.
“I feel like I was creating too much [of errors]especially on the network. Yeah, I think the timing was off. I think I was hitting some balls almost too far forward, and maybe playing too far back,” Goff told the press after the loss.
“I felt like I was setting up a lot of points, you know, well, and just the last ball, I mean, there was one at 40-15 and I thought I missed the net. Yeah, there were a lot of mistakes in the game. Which [forehand] side.”
Gauff also leads the women’s team in the tournament in double faults, with 35, more than double the number of other quarterfinalists (Emma Navarro has 17; Elina Svitolina and Madison Keys, 15).
Her direct playing style, death by serve often works, and the power and ability to serve aces earns her a lot of free points on her serve. But against Badosa, in the deciding second set, Gauff’s serve percentage was just 56%, and she won just 24% of the points on her second serve, a recipe for disaster so late in the tournament.
“I have to be aggressive. I feel like this is when I play my best. That’s how I’ve won most of my matches so far in the last few months by playing aggressively,” she said.
Gauff continues to work on her mental game
Gauff was reasonably circumspect in her post-match press conference, saying she was “obviously disappointed, but not completely crushed”.
Something she’s been trying to work on for the past six to nine months is separating herself from other people’s expectations, and instead focusing on her own internal expectations.
“Yes, I think you have to realize that most online coaches have never coached anyone at my level or have never played. So it’s one of those things. It’s easier to look outward, you know, all these things when you’re playing,” she said. As you comment, you won’t hear commentators, but rather people saying, “Oh, she should have done that or he should have done that.”
“Even when I’m watching, I’m doing it. Obviously when you’re there, it’s different. I think that’s the thing I take away from it is that I’m the one there, and I’m the one who makes the decision at the end of the day. If people want to say things, I handle the matter with caution.
“I’m proud of myself, that’s all I can say. I promise I will continue to do my best to improve and live up to my expectations of myself and anything others have… that I can.” No control over that.”
As for her immediate future? Gauff has indicated she will not be betting on ranking points this season, instead looking at major tournaments as her biggest goals for 2025.
“I’m going home and taking a break. I’ve been playing a lot of tennis basically since the end of last year. So, yeah, take a week off or something like that and then go back to work. It’s getting better,” she said of the next few weeks.
“I don’t think Doha and Dubai are a priority… Obviously the next thing is the French Open, so try to push for that.”
Don’t rule out Badosa
The former world number two says she is playing better now than before her miserable career with a back injury in 2023 and 2024 saw her drop in the world rankings outside the top 100.
This was demonstrated, not only against Gauff but in all tournaments. The Spaniard has been pushed to three sets only once this tournament, against Marta Kostyuk in the third round, and has looked very comfortable so far.
“Do I feel like I’m back where I belong? Yes, of course,” she said after the match on Tuesday. “I mean, since I came back last year to 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 wanted that. To be one of the best players in the world and prove that.” “And to show that and be consistent, that’s my goal for this year as well.”
It’s her first career major win against a top-10 ranked opponent (she was 0-3 entering the day), and now in her first major semifinal, Badosa has the chance to become the first Spanish woman to reach a Grand Slam final since Garbine Muguruza in 2020 here in Melbourne.
She will face either Aryna Sabalenka or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the semi-finals on Thursday.