Melbourne: US Tennis star Coco Gauff’s dreams of securing another Grand Slam title were crashed on Tuesday as she conceded a defeat against Paula Badosa in the quarterfinal. Badosa secured a straight sets win over her opponent by 7-5, 6-4 to enter her maiden Grand Slam semifinal appearance.
Gauff, who is on a 13-match winning streak and a record of 9-0 in 2025 entered the contest full of confidence as she also had winning momentum from the WTA finals played last November. The 2023 US Open Champion failed to maintain consistency throughout the fixture and hit 41 unforced errors. Her tally of unforced errors includes six double faults and 28 missed forehands. Especially, she struggled with her serves and a double fault from her in the second set handed Badosa a lead of 5-2 on which she capitalised.
Believe it, Badosa ✨@paulabadosa #AO2025 pic.twitter.com/7MsZ9d07db
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 21, 2025
It was a neck-to-neck battle in the first set and the contest was heading towards a tiebreaker. However, Badosa broke Gauff’s serve with a forehand winner which helped her bag the set by 7-5. Badosa kicked off the second set strongly as she got an early break. However, Gauff bounced back with her solid backhand. The 27-year-old US player then took the lead once again in the set as Gauff committed an unforced error. Afterwards, Badosa continued her dominance and secured a win.
First Grand Slam semifinal, first win against a Top 10 opponent in a Grand Slam - Paula Badosa, this was a lesson in class and conviction 👏👏@wwos • @espn • @eurosport • @wowowtennis • @paulabadosa • #AO2025 pic.twitter.com/O14jgI05KT
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 21, 2025
Badosa sank to her knees in disbelief after the victory and summed up her emotions after the match.
“Emotional. I'm a bit emotional, as you know, I'm a very emotional person and overcoming something like this. The last slam, the quarterfinals were very tough, so today I came in, I wanted to play my best game. I think I did it. Coco at the beginning, she was playing insane tennis, but, I'm super proud of the level I gave today,” said Badosa during her post-match interview.
