“It’s funny because, not too long ago or maybe a couple years ago, I had a really bad stat line where, if I lost the first set, I would lose the match,” Gauff said. “It was really bad, and I remember my dad said, ‘You’ve got to get some fight in you!’ So, every time I lose a first set, I think about that and try to dig even deeper.”
Playing in sweltering conditions, Gauff soon turned the match around and never looked in danger after leveling the match at one set apiece, breaking Bencic twice to serve out the match in under two and a half hours.
Up next for the American is Paula Badosa, a former world No. 2 who won the WTA’s 2024 Comeback Player of the Year Award after conquering a back injury to return to the world’s Top 20. Badosa was first into the quarterfinals, her first in Australia, when she flipped a 2-5 second-set deficit against Olga Danilovic, and will look to flip an even more daunting deficit against Gauff, having lost both of their 2024 encounters.
