"The better you do, the more you take for granted" - Coco Gauff makes her feelings known about Australian Open run after shocking exit

Coco Gauff's campaign at the 2025 Australian Open ended with a surprising loss to Spain's Paula Badosa in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, January 21. Badosa, the No. 11 seed defeated Gauff 7-5, 6-4 by breaking the American four times, meanwhile being broken back twice.

The result meant Gauff fell one step before matching her previous showing at the Australian Open as she reached the semifinals in 2024, losing to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets.

Following the loss to Badosa, the American addressed the media at Melbourne Park and Sportskeeda happened to ask if she could draw any positives from her campaign, which saw her win five matches in a row.

"Yeah. You're right, it's not a bad result," Coco Gauff replied. "I think the better you do, the more you take for granted of this. I think some of the things -- I guess the positives I can take away is I had a tough draw. Wimbledon I had a tough draw, and I kind of succumbed to that. Same at US Open."

The 20-year-old dropped only one set in Melbourne before the quarterfinals, playing against comeback star Belinda Bencic in the fourth round. In the press conference further, Gauff mentioned her effort against the Swiss, saying:

"I feel like I was ready from the start of this tournament. Yeah, with each match I found solutions, even against Belinda. Wasn't playing, you know, my best, but I was able to turn it around. Then today I was close to doing that as well. So there's a lot of things to be proud of, a lot of things to look forward to."

Bencic took the opening set but Gauff fought back to take the match 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

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Coco Gauff: "I'm going to go home and take a break"

Coco Gauff (Getty)

Later during the same press conference at the 2025 Australian Open, Coco Gauff revealed she's looking forward to taking a week-long break before she starts working on the court again.

"I'm going to go home and take a break. I've been playing a lot of tennis basically since the end of last year. So, yeah, take like a week off or something like that and then get back to work and get better," the World No. 3 said.

Gauff, who took the WTA Finals trophy home late last year, added:

"I don't think Doha and Dubai is a priority. Obviously if I do well, great. Obviously the next thing is French Open, so try to progress for that."

Coco Gauff notably suffered a first-round loss in the Qatar Open (Doha) in 2024 and played till the quarterfinals in the Dubai Tennis Championships.