Coco Gauff had one of the worst days of her career at the Australian Open today.
The American star wanted to make it to the bottom of this edition of the Happy Slam and was considered the favorite against Elina Svitolina, although the Ukrainian player is literally unstoppable in this start of the season in which she is still undefeated.
The No.12 seed lifted the trophy in Auckland at the start of 2026 and extended her winning streak to 10 matches in a row, the third longest of her career.
However, no one could have imagined that Svitolina would demolish Coco in just 59 minutes on the iconic Rod Laver Arena. It is no exaggeration to say that Gauff was unable to do anything and her frustration at the end of the match was evident to everyone, as evidenced by the racket broken by her as she returned to the locker room.
Coco has suffered a major shock
The American champion won only 18% of points with the second serve and made 26 unforced errors, to which is added the feeling that she did not know what to do on the court. It will be necessary for him to make a thorough reflection in the coming weeks, because such a loss could have negative repercussions on the rest of his season.
In her press conference, Cori admitted her opponent's superiority in all aspects of the game: "She played really brilliantly and I couldn't do the same. I always tried to have a positive attitude and hoped to react, but nothing worked today. I have to learn from this experience and learn to win matches even when I play badly."
She didn't find help even from her team, who didn't know what to tell her at some point and analysts noticed this.
Speaking to 'TNT Sports', former ATP ace Tim Henman shared his opinion on the matter: “If you are number three in the world and your coach is saying to you aim for the middle that says it all. That is not a tactic.
That is basically trying to give yourself the biggest margin for error and against a quality opponent if you can only hit it down the middle, she is going to take advantage.”
