Coco Gauff’s quest for a return trip to the semifinals in Melbourne has come to an end.

Spain’s Paula Badosa stunned Gauff and grabbed a 7-5, 6-4 win in straight sets in what was a hot battle at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday afternoon to earn her spot in the semifinals of the first Grand Slam of the year. It marked Badosa’s first-ever win over a top-10 opponent in a Grand Slam, and moved her to ninth in the world.

Badosa will now take on either top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka or Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the semifinals on Friday.

Gauff, the third-ranked player in the world, will now head home early. The 20-year-old American star had been on a dominant run throughout the sport in recent weeks and months, and was fresh off a run to the semifinals at the event last year — which was her second semifinal appearance of the year at a Grand Slam. But Gauff had to rally to even make the quarterfinals on Sunday. She fell in the initial set of her match with Belinda Bencic 7-5, though that sparked a huge run. Gauff rolled through the next two sets, and closed out the third one, 6-1, to grab the win and reach Monday’s match. It was her only match of the tournament to go three sets. That dropped set was the first she’s lost in her last 25 dating back to the end of last season, too.

Then, on Tuesday, even though those problems disappeared briefly against Bencic, Gauff fell right back into it. She took the early lead in the opening set, but Badosa never went away. She kept rallying back, and then she tied it up 4-4 after a pair of unforced errors from Gauff left the door open. Badosa surged ahead after that, thanks to a series of several clutch forehand winners that Gauff simply had no answers to in the 11th game. It marked the fourth straight time that these two have played that Badosa has won the first set, though Gauff has rallied twice during that stretch and win it in three.

Badosa then flew ahead to a 5-2 lead in the second set without much issue. Gauff kept making unforced errors, and even lost the seventh game on a double fault. Though Gauff rattled off two straight wins to stay alive, it came too late. Badosa served for the win to close it out and secure her spot in the semifinals. Gauff had 41 unforced errors in the loss in total, 28 missed forehands and six double faults. Badosa won four of 10 break points in the match with nine winners.

Badosa, who has recovered from what appeared to be a career-threatening back injury after climbing as high as No. 2 in the world rankings, entered the tournament ranked No. 12. She’s now made it farther than she’s ever been in a Grand Slam. She reached the quarterfinals at the US Open last fall, and she was bounced out of the third round of the Australian Open last year.

As for Gauff, though she's been on a very solid tear to start the 2025 campaign, her push for what would be a second Grand Slam title in her career will have to wait.