'I'm not crushed': After Australian Open exit, what's next for Coco ...

MELBOURNE -- World No.3 Coco Gauff bowed out of the Australian Open in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, losing 7-5, 6-4 to No.12 Paula Badosa. A semifinalist at Melbourne Park last year, Gauff was handed her first loss of the 2025 season by the Spaniard, who improved to 4-3 against her. 

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Despite the loss, Gauff leaves Australia confident that she is well on track for another outstanding season. Since falling in the Round of 16 in her US Open title defense last fall and adding coach Matt Daley to her team, Gauff has worked to retool her game to shore up her dangerous serve and add more aggression from the baseline. 

The results provided immediate feedback. Gauff finished 2024 by winning the WTA 1000 in Beijing and the WTA Finals Riyadh. She continued that momentum through the start of 2025, leading Team USA to its second United Cup title by going undefeated in singles, a run that included a gritty win over World No.2 Iga Swiatek. Even with Tuesday's loss, Gauff has won 22 of her last 25 matches. 

"I have to be aggressive," Gauff said after the loss. "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. I think it's just being more comfortable with that. 

"I'm making a shift in my game. I haven't always played that aggressive, so I have to expect [losses] early on. I do have faith that it will be more of an instinct instead of second guessing."

At the start of the tournament, Gauff had an outside chance at leaving Melbourne Park as World No.1, though No.2 Swiatek's progress through the tournament ended those chances in the first week. Against Badosa, Gauff narrowly lost the first set before a rash of errors in the second set undermined her ability to mount a comeback. 

"US Open I needed to work on my serve," Gauff said. "Not saying that my serve is where I want it to be, but I worked on it. Obviously a big improvement. So I want to continue working on that, continue working on playing aggressive margin.

"So I feel like I'm on the road to the right way, right path. I'm not crushed. I think at US Open I felt from the start of the year to that point I had maybe, not gone backwards, but backwards or a little bit stagnant. Even though I lost today, I feel like I'm in an upward trajectory.

"I'm not crushed, but obviously it does feel bad when you feel like you're playing great tennis for the better start of this year to lose, but it is what it is. We'll get back to work."

Gauff will now turn to preparations for the Hologic WTA Tour's swing through the Middle East, with back-to-back WTA 1000s at the Qatar Total Open and Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Doha begins on Feb.9.

"It's not a bad result," Gauff said. "I think the better you do, the more you take for granted of this.

"I guess the positives I can take away is I had a tough draw. Wimbledon I had a tough draw, and I kind of succumbed to that. Same at US Open. I feel like I was ready from the start of this tournament. With each match I found solutions, even against Belinda [Bencic]. Wasn't playing my best, but I was able to turn it around. Then today I was close to doing that as well.

"So there's a lot of things to be proud of, a lot of things to look forward to."