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Emotional Badosa stuns Gauff to reach Australian Open semi-finals / Photo: © AFP
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Emotional Badosa stuns Gauff to reach Australian Open semi-finals
An "emotional" Paula Badosa shattered world number three Coco Gauff's dream of a first Australian Open title when she stunned her 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
Badosa reached a Slam semi-final for the first time in her career -- the first Spanish woman to do so since Garbine Muguruza at Melbourne in 2020.
"I'm a bit emotional," said Badosa, who will face either two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who play later, for a place in the final.
"I'm a very emotional person. I wanted to play my best game. I think I did it.
"I'm super proud of the level I gave today."
It caps a remarkable comeback to tennis for the 11th seed who was ranked outside the top 100 a year ago after a stress fracture in her back.
"I mean, a year ago, I was here with my back that I didn't know if I had to retire from this sport, and now I'm here playing against the best in the world," said Badosa.
"I won today. I'm in a semi final. So I would never think that a year after I would be here."
Third seed Gauff had been unbeaten in nine matches this season but dropped her first set of 2025 before recovering to beat Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic in the last 16.
Badosa began aggressively and had the Gauff serve under pressure early in the first set.
Gauff was serving at 5-5 30-40 when the Spaniard got the breakthrough on her third break-point opportunity and served out to take the opener in 56 minutes.
The American, uncharacteristically, failed to create any break points in the first set and littered her game with unforced errors.
Badosa was relentless at the start of the second set in a marathon first game that lasted for 14 minutes and went to eight deuces.
Gauff saved four break points but a fifth proved costly as the American went long to drop her serve again.
A rasping running forehand winner and a backhand at the net put Gauff on the board and fired her up as broke back to level at 2-2.
But Badosa powered to another two breaks and secured the match in 1hr 43min, falling to the court in celebration as she registered her first win over a top-10 opponent at a Grand Slam in four attempts.
A.Evans--SFF
