Boasting more athleticism than most can dream of and always up for a scrap with her back against the wall, Coco Gauff has a knack for making winning tough look deceptively easy.
The third seed assured all that the reality was vastly different in her 5-7 6-2 6-1 fourth-round victory against inspired comeback mum Belinda Bencic on the warmest day of her Australian Open 2025 campaign to date on Sunday.
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The American ultimately had more in the tank in her Rod Laver Arena return and steered clear for her eighth win from her past nine three-set Grand Slam encounters.
“There’s still a lot to go for me to accomplish my goal, but I can say that I’m proud of myself and happy how I performed,” Gauff said after booking a last-eight showdown against 11th seed Paula Badosa.
“It’s funny because I felt like not too long ago, maybe a couple of years ago, I had a really bad stat line when I lost the first set. I was really bad, so I remember my dad was like ‘you’ve gotta get some fight in you’, so every time I lose the first set I kind of think about that and try to dig even deeper.
“I think just leave it out there on court, honestly. We have a saying on my team just give what you have that day and, you know, sometimes results will go your way, sometimes they don’t. Today I was just trying to put myself in the position that if I left the court I could leave proud of myself.”
In just her sixth event back since her return from the birth of daughter Bella, Bencic played with little to lose.
The Swiss, a fellow former junior prodigy who, like Gauff, burst on to the scene as a teenager, looked to become the first woman in the Open era to down three Grand Slam champions en route to the Australian Open quarterfinals, having already moved past Jelena Ostapenko and Naomi Osaka this tournament.
Just as comfortable standing toe-to-toe, backhand-to-backhand with her 20-year-old opponent early on, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist capitalised on her cleverly disguised directional changes and seized the one-set advantage on her second attempt at serving for it.
Had Switzerland not qualified for the season-opening United Cup in Sydney, Bencic admitted she likely would not have made the trip to Australia given she was yet to return to full fitness.
While that long-haul flight proved well worth it, once sets were squared and the clock ticked over two hours, Bencic showed the first signs of physical fatigue.
Gauff was not entirely comfortable in the final set, but her opponent’s race was run, and the American put her foot down to extend her unbeaten start to the season to nine wins after two hours and 26 minutes.
Earlier, Badosa overcame a second-set scare against Serbian surprise packet Olga Danilovic to book successive Grand Slam quarterfinals for the first time.
Following a frustrating two years due to a serious back injury, the Spaniard dropped as low as No.140 last March before she ended the season on the brink of a top-10 return.
Against the 23-year-old from Belgrade, she drew on the type of aggressive ball-striking that has carried her as high as world No.2 as she recovered from 2-5 down in the second set for her maiden Australian Open last-eight berth 6-1 7-6(2).
“Today I was honestly really nervous when I came into the match,” Badosa said. “Sometimes you see matches as an opportunity. Today was one of those, I'm not going to lie. But I think I managed it really well.”
The 55th-ranked Danilovic was coming off her biggest win at a major against seventh seed Jessica Pegula and despite a first-set wipeout came close to forcing a decider only for Badosa to storm home after 80 minutes.
“I was always really sad because I always said this was my favourite Slam and I never made it to the last rounds,” Badosa said. “Finally I’m here and finally I think I will play the next match in Rod Laver Arena, so I’m really looking forward to that.”