melbourne
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa reached her first Grand Slam semi-final by defeating world No. 3 Coco Gauff 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. The 27-year-old Badosa, who was the 2024 Comeback Player of the Year after suffering a career-threatening back injury last year, had previously gone 0-2 in major quarterfinals in her career. She handed Gauff her first defeat of 2025 in 1 hour and 43 minutes inside Rod Laver Arena.
“Today I came out to play, and I wanted to play my best game, and I think I did that,” Badosa said after the match. “Coco, in the beginning, she was playing strange tennis, but I am very proud of the performance I performed today.”
“A year ago, I was here with my back injury, I didn’t know whether to retire from this sport or not, and now I am here, playing for the best in the world,” she said. I won today, I am in the semi-finals, and I never thought that after a year, I would be here.”
Badosa won a hard-fought first set 7–5, displaying tactical prowess. Despite facing adversity at 30-30, he maintained his composure, using a mixture of power and placement to secure the advantage. Gauff fought bravely, forced mistakes and kept up the pressure, but ultimately could not advance.
Gauff’s 18 minutes of service play early in the second set put the Spaniard ahead, and she won three straight games at 2–2, while Gauff continued to struggle. But after failing to win at 5-2, Badosa sealed her place in the last four with two aces, an unreturned serve and a forehand winner in the final game of the match. The win also gave Badosa her first top 10 win at a Grand Slam tournament.
The Spaniard now awaits the winner of the quarterfinal match between world No. 1 and two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka and No. 21 seed and 2021 Roland Garros finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
