MELBOURNE, Australia – It took just 59 minutes for world No. 3 Coco Gauff’s Australian Open campaign to come to an end, with 12th-seeded Elina Svitolina cruising to a quarter-final victory on Tuesday night.
Gauff looked out of sorts from the very first game of the match and couldn’t find her rhythm, her serve or her basic strokes in the 6-1, 6-2 loss.
For Svitolina, it is the second straight victory over a top 10 opponent, and marks the Ukrainian’s return to the top 10 for the first time since 2021.
Here’s what went wrong for Gauff.
Svitolina found her groove faster and it upset Gauff
Nerves will always run high in the Grand Slam quarter-final, and that was evident early in the match for both Gauff and Svitolina. Gauff served first, and the pair exchanged three service breaks before Svitolina managed to steady herself and consolidate the break in the fourth game of the set.
During her first two service games, Gauff had three double faults, including on break point, giving her opponent a 2-1 lead. In fact, Gauff would not hold her serve for the entire first set, and her frustration was evident as she looked at her player’s box several times in search of answers.
“I tried my best to be positive, but I felt like nothing was working right now,” Gauff said at her press conference after the loss. “That’s a little bit frustrating when you’re out there and you feel like your strengths aren’t really doing their thing.”
Over the course of the match, Gauff won only 13 of 32 points on her first serve (41% to Svitolina’s 71%), and only 2 of 11 points on her second serve (18% to Svitolina’s 50%). Svitolina, 31, had a steadier hand and head.
There were further distractions – Gauff sent away rackets to be re-strung as he was unhappy with the tension – but it was for naught as Svitolina raced to a 6-1 lead after just 29 minutes.
“I was just like, okay, obviously you want to win the first set when you’re in the quarterfinals, but I couldn’t change that, so I felt emotional, I think it was just frustration, and it showed,” Gauff later said of being down so quickly.
Gauff’s ground game let her down big time
When Gauff and her coaching staff review the tape of this match, one thing will become abundantly clear: she simply made way too many mistakes.
Five double faults, 26 unforced errors and only three winners. In her fourth-round victory over Karolina Muchova just two days earlier (a three-setter), Gauff hit 18 winners for her 26 errors.
The quarter-final was a nightmare for the American as she struggled to dictate play and was unable to hit the touchline and baseline with her attacking shots.
Elina Svitolina DOMINATED the first set of winners that got us going 🤩 @wwos • @espn • @tntsports • @wowowtennis • #AO26 pic.twitter.com/QchzwoVTFd
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 27, 2026
At some point, her box had to reassess the game plan. “[Svitolina] plays great. Literally aiming for the middle for now, that’s all,” said her coach, Gavin MacMillan.
In an effort to build Gauff’s confidence in her basic strokes, her coaches told her to play “safe” tennis, a clear indication that something was wrong.
“I just asked, ‘Am I playing wrong?’ I’m just asking for advice,” Gauff said.
“Obviously she was playing well and I wasn’t. So they just told me to go for bigger goals and hit through the middle. But I don’t know, I just felt like hitting through the middle against her wasn’t working because she was hitting winners. So yeah, it was just an awkward day, I guess.”
In the final play of the match, on Gauff’s serve, the final three points of the match were uncharacteristic Gauff errors: attempted passing shots that missed by about a foot each time.
“She played really well,” Gauff admitted. “And unfortunately, when people raise their level, I can usually raise mine, and today I just didn’t do that.”
For Gauff it is the second consecutive quarter-final elimination in Melbourne, after reaching a semi-final here in 2024. For Svitolina it is the first place in the semi-finals of the Australian Open. She will face world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday for a place in Saturday’s final.
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