The only thing that broke with more certainty than Coco Gauff used was her racket.
Gauff lost to Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-2 in just 59 minutes in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open on Tuesday night. The third-ranked American double-faulted five times without hitting a single ace. He shot a staggering 41 percent of his points even in his first career game and was a hopeless 2-for-11 in second-down points.
Immediately after leaving the court, Gauff took out his frustrations on his rack.
“I think I played well,” said Svitolina. “Because Coco is a good champion, you know, he came back a few times in our games sitting in the same place. For me, I tried to keep building, keep trying to play well and try to really focus from the beginning to the end.”
Gauff agreed.
“He played very well,” Gauff said. “Usually when people raise their level, I can raise mine – and today I didn’t do that. I felt like all the things I was doing well, I wasn’t doing well today. The backhand wasn’t shooting; the forehand wasn’t really shooting. It’s coming back. Just a lot of things went wrong today.
“I admire him because he forced me to play like that. Yes, today was a bad day – but bad days are often caused by your opponent. So well done.”
On the men’s side, Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz advanced to the semifinals. Zverev held off Learner Tien 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-1, 7-6 (3) before Alcaraz beat Alex de Minaur 7-5, 6-2, 6-1.
