MELBOURNE, Australia — For a second consecutive year, Coco Gauff hit a wall during the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
As with last year’s defeat against Paula Badosa, Gauff ran into an opponent who was mostly flowing when she could not. Fresh off upsetting No. 8 seed Mirra Andreeva, who had been looking ready to take over the tournament, Elina Svitolina jumped all over short balls and played the kind of front-foot tennis that usually makes Gauff retrieve, scramble and slice her way through matches.
Still, the biggest problem for Gauff Tuesday night on Rod Laver Arena was Gauff herself.
Under the roof at the end of a blistering day, Svitolina mostly flowed through a mixture of winners from her racket or errors from Gauff’s, the sheer speed of the games and points after a back-and-forth start leaving the American helpless to reset and recover. Gauff, a two-time Grand Slam champion, had one of those nights where everything goes wrong; Svitolina, the sports hero of Ukraine, cruised into her first Grand Slam semifinal in two and a half years with a 6-1, 6-2 win.
Within the first few games, Gauff was looking to her box in the corner of the court for assistance. Four games in, she brushed her hand across her strings, an indication that she and her team had miscalculated the tension she needed in conditions far different from her first four matches, all of which took place outdoors during the day.
In case there was any mystery about it, a ball girl was dispatched to redo three rackets, about half as many with which a pro will take to the court.
Svitolina was leading 4-1 by then, and Gauff’s game had collapsed. That freed up Svitolina to widen her margins, shrinking the cage she had erected around Gauff’s forehand corner by just sending the ball back and forth down the middle, pouncing on anything short and varying angles enough to prevent Gauff from getting the rhythm she so badly needed. Svitolina lost the second game of the match, then won the next nine.
In the first set alone, Gauff double-faulted five times. She made 14 unforced errors and hit just two winners. She barely got to the net. Svitolina won 29 points to 16.
Gauff has played bad sets before. She probably does it more than any other top player. Usually her legs and her feet can bail her out. Speed and heart don’t ever have to go into a slump.
On this night though, Gauff didn’t start to move the way she can until halfway through the second set. By then, Svitolina was up a break and brimming with the confidence of someone who knew how grand an opportunity she had. On one last backhand error, and one last break, Gauff was out of the tournament in a minute under an hour.
