Coco Gauff knocked out of Australian Open in brutal 59-minute collapse

Elina Svitolina knocked Coco Gauff out of the Australian Open to set up a semi-final clash with world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka as the American’s serve collapsed in brutal fashion.

Ukraine’s Svitolina, the 12th seed, defeated Gauff 6-1, 6-2 in just 59 minutes to reach her first Australian Open semi-final as her direct returns forced Gauff’s game to malfunction.

The 21-year-old made five double faults in the first set and did not hold serve until her sixth game of the match. As Gauff spiralled, at one stage in the second set Svitolina had won 12 points in a row.

The French Open champion looked distressed as her errors continued to pile up and – barring a late fight back from 0-3 down in the second set – the scoreline could have been even worse.

After leaving the Rod Laver Arena, footage from backstage cameras captured Gauff, walking alone, stopping to repeatedly smash her racket against a concrete ramp.

The statistics were just as tough for the world No 3, with just three winners to 26 unforced errors. As her game unravelled, Gauff’s team advised her to simply hit the ball into the middle of the court.

“We all have bad days at the office,” said Tim Henman on TNT Sports. “But I think in the context of being the favourite going into that match, she’s a grand slam champion, she’s won the French Open, she’s won the US Open, she’s No 3 in the world. I mean that a shocking performance. There’s no two ways about it and Svitolina just took advantage.

“But when you get a top player who can really only kick that first serve in and then making so many mistakes from the back of the court, the assets of your game have just been completely stripped apart in front of our eyes. It was pretty tough to watch.”

Svitolina, meanwhile, advanced to her first Australian Open semi-final at the age of 31, while reaching just a second a grand slam semi-final since returning to the sport in 2023 after becoming a mother to her daughter Skai in 2022.

This result also means that she will return to the world’s top 10, after taking the decision to cut her season short last September due to fatigue and burnout.

“I’m very pleased, with the tournament so far. It has always been my dream to come back here after maternity leave. It was my dream to come back in top 10. Always been my goal.

“Unfortunately it didn’t happen last year. I stopped after September. When we were training in the off-season, I told my coach I want to come back in top 10 still, so this was my goal for this year.”

Sabalenka is bidding to regain her Australian Open title after defeat to Madison Keys in last year’s final and ended the run of American teenager Iva Jovic earlier in the day, winning 6-3 6-0.