Everyone was looking for that first huge upset to occur at Australian Open 2026.
As it turns out, we were searching in the wrong place.
MORE: All the scores from Day 10 at AO 2026
Rod Laver Arena was in disbelief on Tuesday night as Coco Gauff bottomed out of Australian Open 2026, suffering a 6-1 6-2 quarterfinal defeat to No.12 Elina Svitolina.
Throughout the tournament, the world No.3 has built a reputation for digging herself out of difficult predicaments. When the pressure mounted, Gauff would serve her way out – a skill that, through her own admission, was a work in progress, yet something she had improved in Melbourne.
However, in Tuesday’s quarterfinal against Svitolina, Gauff simply had no answers. She never really settled into the 59-minute encounter, the quickest AO women’s singles quarterfinal in six years.
“Usually when people raise their level, I’m able to raise mine, and today I didn’t do that,” an emotional Gauff said.
“Sometimes when you lose a set 6-1, it’s like, ‘okay, whatever, reset’. And then at 3-0 [in the second set], I was glad to get that game. I just felt like all the things I do well, I just wasn’t doing well.
“I tried my best to be positive, but I just felt like nothing for me was working.”
Gauff committed 14 unforced errors in the first set, including five double faults. While players can generally turn things around when they have a bad set, Svitolina was relentless on the attack, slamming the door on any potential comeback.
“Credit to her because she forced me to play like that,” she said.
“It’s not like I just woke up and, yeah, today was a bad day, but bad days are often caused by your opponent, so she did well.
“Usually I’m able to scrap out at least to make the scoreline tighter, and then you never know, nerves can come up on her, something like that. Today I just wasn’t able to do that.”
Despite how grim her day at the office was, the uncharacteristic showing is far from a reflection of Gauff’s tournament. The first major of 2026 was a positive campaign for the 21-year-old, who hired biomechanics specialist Gavin MacMillan in August 2025 to fix her serving.
MORE: AO 2026 women's singles draw
Gauff’s serve helped her secure victories in particularly tight encounters against Hailey Baptiste and Karolina Muchova, where she was forced into a deciding set. Her ability to get more first serves in proved to be a dangerous weapon at AO 2026 as she extended her Grand Slam record in three-set matches to 21-6.
It gives the American plenty of belief as she aims to bounce back post-Australian Open.
“I think it’s a step in the right direction. I feel like there are definitely positives I can take, especially in my last match against Karolina [Muchova]. That was definitely a game I would usually throw in some doubles [double faults],” she said.
“Is my serve where I want it to be? No. Like, I definitely served well in some matches, but I feel like today [my serve was] one of those shots that I would like to be the shot to get me out of trouble.
“I definitely can look back at this tournament and say that it has improved. I hope that the trend can continue upward.
“The focus was making the second [serve] more reliable, which it definitely is more reliable, but obviously I want to just continue that and then make the first serve a bit more aggressive.”