Gauff disappointed but “not completely crushed” after Australian Open loss
The American says her loss to Badosa felt different to last year’s Grand Slam defeats
(c) Tennis Majors
Coco Gauff can see the bright side of her loss to Paula Badosa in the Australian Open quarter-finals on Tuesday.
The American shared that while she was understandably disappointed to be out of the tournament, she was pleased with the approach she took against the No 11 seed – and is confident in her game moving forward.
“I’m obviously disappointed, but I’m not completely crushed,” she said after the 7-5, 6-4 loss to Badosa. “I think it’s just a lot more work to do, but I’m looking forward to a lot.
“I’m still disappointed, but I think the way I played, even though it wasn’t my best, I gave it my all on the court, so that’s something to be proud of. I fought until the end, so I think that’s something. Some matches are going to go my way; some are not.
“I think it’s one of those things that maybe a couple of years ago I would feel a lot more crushed and feel like the world-is-ending-type sadness, but now I think I’m just disappointed that I could have done a little bit better in some areas.
“I mean, I tried my best with what I had today, and that’s all I can do.”
Gauff defends aggressive approach
Gauff made 41 unforced errors over the course of the one-hour, 43-minute match, including 28 on the forehand side.
When questioned, she defended the approach, explaining that this is the path she sees forward for her tennis.
“I felt like I was setting up a lot of the points well and just the last ball, I mean, there was one at 40-15 I think I missed the net. Yeah, there was a lot of errors on that side,” she said.
“I have to be aggressive. 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 early on. I do have faith that it will be more of an instinct instead of, like, a second guess, I guess.”
A different mindset from 2024
At times when Gauff lost matches in 2024, it seemed as though she was out of ideas of what to do on the court.
However, after her loss to Badosa, Gauff said that though the result was the same, it felt different on court because of the work she has put in.
“I feel like US Open I was playing with no solution, 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,” she said.
“US Open I needed to work on my serve. 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.
“I feel like I’m on the road to the right way, right path. I’m not crushed. I think US Open I felt from the start of the year to that point I feel like I had maybe not gone backwards. Yeah, 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.”
