MELBOURNE, Australia — World No. 3 Coco Gauff’s Australian Open marketing campaign resulted in simply 59 minutes as No. 12 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine cruised to victory within the quarterfinals Tuesday evening in Melbourne.
Gauff regarded sluggish from the primary recreation of the match, unable to seek out her rhythm, serve or groundstrokes in a 6-1, 6-2 loss.
It was Svitolina’s second straight win in opposition to a top-10 opponent and her first return to the top-10 since 2021.
Here is what went unsuitable for Gauff:
Svitolina discovered her groove sooner, making Gauff nervous
Tensions are at all times excessive at a Grand Slam quarterfinal, and that was evident for each Gauff and Svitolina from the beginning. Gauff served first and the pair exchanged three breaks of serve earlier than Svitolina managed to remain constant and safe a break within the fourth recreation of the set.
By means of her first two service video games, Gauff dedicated three double faults, together with a break level that gave her opponent a 2-1 lead. In truth, Gauff was unable to carry serve for the whole first set, and her frustration was evident as she repeatedly stared on the participant’s field for solutions.
“I attempted my finest to remain constructive, however I felt like nothing was working at this level,” Gauff mentioned in a press convention after the loss. “It is a little bit irritating once you go on the market and really feel such as you’re not enjoying to your strengths.”
All through the match, Gauff received solely 13 of 32 factors on her first serve (41% to Svitolina’s 71%) and solely 2 of 11 factors to her second serve (18% to Svitolina’s 50%). The 31-year-old Ukrainian had stable fingers and head.
Additional distractions – Gauff, annoyed by the strain, despatched her racket flying to be re-strung – however it was price it as Svitolina took a 6-1 lead in simply 29 minutes.
“Once you’re within the quarterfinals, clearly you need to win the primary set, however you could not change it, so emotionally I feel it was simply frustration, and it confirmed,” Gauff later mentioned of falling down a set so shortly.
Gauff’s floor recreation abandoned her, large deal.
When Gauff and her teaching workers study the tape of this battle, one factor turns into crystal clear: She made too many errors.
There have been 5 double faults, 26 unforced errors, and solely 3 winners. In her fourth-round, three-setter win over Karolina Muchova simply two days in the past, Gauff hit 18 winners in opposition to 26 errors.
The quarterfinals have been a nightmare for the American gamers. She struggled to regulate play and was unable to land offensive pictures to the sidelines or baseline.
Elina Svitolina dominated the primary set with a winner to propel us ahead 🤩 @wwos • @espn • @tntsports • @wowowtennis • #AO26 pic.twitter.com/QchzwoVTFd
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 27, 2026
In some unspecified time in the future, her field needed to reevaluate its recreation plan. “(Svitolina) is enjoying nice. She’s actually hitting the center proper now and that is it,” mentioned her coach, Gavin McMillan.
To assist Gauff acquire confidence in her groundstrokes, coaches instructed her to play “secure” tennis, which was a transparent signal that one thing was unsuitable.
“I used to be simply asking, ‘Am I enjoying unsuitable?’ Simply on the lookout for recommendation,” Gauff mentioned.
“Clearly, she was enjoying effectively and I wasn’t. So they only instructed me to go for a much bigger purpose and hit down the center. However I do not know. I felt like hitting up the center in opposition to her wasn’t going to work as a result of she was hitting winners. “So, yeah, I suppose it was simply an ungainly day. ”
Within the last recreation of the match, on Gauff’s serve, the ultimate three factors of the match have been uncharacteristic errors from Gauff. He tried passing pictures, however missed the mark by a few foot every time.
“She performed rather well,” Gauff admitted. “And sadly, normally when folks increase their degree, I can increase my degree too, however I wasn’t in a position to do this right this moment.”
That is Gauff’s second straight quarterfinal loss since reaching the semifinals in Melbourne in 2024. This will likely be Svitolina’s first look within the Australian Open semi-finals. She is going to face world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday for a spot in Saturday’s last.
