Spain’s Paula Badosa has reached her maiden career Grand Slam singles semifinal after  stunning former US Open champion Coco Gauff on Tuesday (Jan 21). Badosa, playing in her first Australian quarterfinal, beat Gauff 7-5, 6-4 as she stands two steps away from the Australia Open title. She will next face the winner of Aryna Sabalenka and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who play later on Tuesday.

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Badosa reaches maiden semis

Playing at the Rod Laver Arena in the scorching heat of Melbourne, Badosa and Gauff were level until the 11th game of the opening set where the former broke the serve to pocket the set. It was the same scene in the second set as Badosa won the decisive 10th game to pocket the match. Gauff’s 41 unforced errors proved costly as it decided the outcome of the match.

In total, Badosa gave away only three break points while Gauff had to save six, having been broken four times in the match.

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Another Achilles heel for Gauff was her second serve where she lost the point on six occasions, resulting in a double fault.

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Big day awaits at Australian Open 2025

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With Badosa reaching her maiden semis, the eyes now turn to the second quarterfinal of the day as defending champion Sabalenka takes on Pavlyuchenkova. Sabalenka has won the Australian Open in consecutive years and could become the first athlete to win the tournament to complete a hat-trick of wins since Martina Hingis between 1997 and 1999.

However, the biggest attraction will be the Carlos Alcaraz vs Novak Djokovic quarterfinal which highlights the day.

The two have developed a great rivalry in recent years having faced in back-to-back Wimbledon finals and also meeting in the Paris Olympics gold medal match. The winner of the match will potentially face Alexander Zverev in the semis.