By Lidia Kelly
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Coco Gauff said after her defeat by Paula Badosa at the Australian Open on Tuesday that she was departing the Grand Slam with clear ideas on what to improve in a welcome contrast to how she felt after her U.S. Open title defence ended last year.
The error-prone American fell to a 7-5 6-4 defeat by a resurgent Badosa in the quarter-finals, as her 13-match winning run going back to her WTA Finals triumph in November finally ended on a sunny day at Rod Laver Arena.
World number three Gauff was far from her aggressive best but said she felt more positive than she did after her fourth-round loss to compatriot Emma Navarro at New York.
“Even though I lost today, I feel like I’m on an upward trajectory,” Gauff told reporters.
“I feel like (at the) U.S. Open I was playing with no solutions, so I think that was more the frustrating part. Today, I feel like I’m playing with solutions.
“I know what I need to work on.”
Gauff parted company with coach Brad Gilbert after the U.S. Open and hired Matt Daly and began making a few adjustments to her game, including grip changes.
Things did not go according to plan for Gauff against Badosa as she committed 41 unforced errors, but the 20-year-old identified her serve as something that needed a bit more work after six double faults against Badosa.
“I needed to work on my serve,” Gauff added.
“I’m not saying that my serve is where I want it to be, but I worked on it. Obviously a big improvement. I want to continue working on that, continue working on playing aggressive.”
Gauff said she was not leaving Melbourne dejected.
“I feel like I was ready from the start of this tournament,” she added.
“Yeah, with each match I found solutions … Then today I was close to doing that as well. I’m obviously disappointed, but I’m not completely crushed.”
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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