Coco Gauff of the U.S. reacts during her quarterfinal match against Paula Badosa of Spain at the Australian Open 2025 tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
MELBOURNE–Coco Gauff said after her defeat by Paula Badosa at the Australian Open 2025 on Tuesday that she was departing the Grand Slam with clear ideas on what to improve in a welcome contrast to how she felt after her U.S. Open title defense ended last year.
The error-prone American fell to a 7-5 6-4 defeat by a resurgent Badosa in the quarter-finals, as her 13-match winning run going back to her WTA Finals triumph in November finally ended on a sunny day at Rod Laver Arena.
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READ: Australian Open 2025: Paula Badosa eliminates Coco Gauff
World number three Gauff was far from her aggressive best but said she felt more positive than she did after her fourth-round loss to compatriot Emma Navarro at New York.
“Even though I lost today, I feel like I’m on an upward trajectory,” Gauff told reporters.
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“I feel like (at the) U.S. Open I was playing with no solutions, so I think that was more the frustrating part. Today, I feel like I’m playing with solutions.
“I know what I need to work on.”
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Gauff parted company with coach Brad Gilbert after the U.S. Open and hired Matt Daly and began making a few adjustments to her game, including grip changes.
Things did not go according to plan for Gauff against Badosa as she committed 41 unforced errors, but the 20-year-old identified her serve as something that needed a bit more work after six double faults against Badosa.
“I needed to work on my serve,” Gauff added.
“I’m not saying that my serve is where I want it to be, but I worked on it. Obviously a big improvement. I want to continue working on that, continue working on playing aggressive.”
Gauff said she was not leaving Melbourne dejected.
“I feel like I was ready from the start of this tournament,” she added.
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“Yeah, with each match I found solutions … Then today I was close to doing that as well. I’m obviously disappointed, but I’m not completely crushed.”
