It’s a tough day for Coco Gauff. The American No. 1 came into the Australian Open determined to take it one step further. Last year, she reached the quarterfinals. In 2024, she made her maiden semifinals. This time, she was chasing the finals. And she looked ready for it too, dispatching Kamilla Rakhimova, Olga Danilovic, Hailey Baptiste, and Karolina Muchova with confidence. But once again in the quarterfinals, Gauff looked lost against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina. It left fans frustrated and uneasy.

On Tuesday, facing Svitolina, Coco appeared distraught. She couldn’t convert chances or find a way to break her opponent. Her energy dipped fast. Eventually, she fell to the 12th seed in straight sets, in just 59 minutes. Fans online couldn’t believe what they’d seen.

One fan took to X to write, “Coco Gauff please go home. You embarrassed us all today.”

It was a hard scene to watch as Coco walked off the court, disappointment shadowing every step. Nothing clicked, especially her serve. She lost her rhythm early, broken four times in the first set and twice in the second. The numbers told it all: just 41 percent of first-serve points won and 19 unforced errors that stacked up far too fast.

Gauff tried to reset. She switched racquets and took a breather after the first set. But the frustration refused to lift. The second set opened with yet another break, and she couldn’t find her footing. It was one of those days when everything stayed just out of reach.

Eventually, the frustration boiled over post-match as well. The third seed let her frustration boil over backstage, slamming her racket to the ground in a burst of anger, a moment caught on CCTV cameras that left many concerned. On the other hand, supporters of the American were displeased with her form during the match.

Fans lash out at Coco Gauff at the Australian Open

Watching the World No. 3 stumble on court, one fan felt desperate to see her unleash her trademark aggression. They wrote, “coco gauff pls bro im begging you to lock in.”

Coco Gauff’s Australian Open run had been a rollercoaster. She rallied from a one-set deficit against Hailey Baptiste in the third round, then clawed through a tense three-set thriller with Karolina Muchova to reach the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park. Each victory felt like another test passed, another show of grit.

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Elina Svitolina, though, looked unstoppable. The Ukrainian hadn’t dropped a set in her second straight quarterfinal run, cruising past No. 8 Mirra Andreeva in the fourth round. That same power and precision carried into her clash with Gauff, leaving fans stunned as the match unfolded.

Another fan wrote, “Coco Gauff got me up at 3am to perform a like this.”

During the match, the 31-year-old dominated the numbers. She broke the 21-year-old American six times and won 71 percent of her first-serve points, compared to Gauff’s 41. Svitolina kept her composure even on the second serve, winning half of those points. Gauff managed just 33 percent.

Svitolina has been dialing in her serve with new coach Gavin MacMillan, a biomechanics expert known for fixing technique. The move came after a rough patch last season when the World No. 3 fired 23 double faults in Montreal and another 16 in the Cincinnati quarterfinals. Her struggles peaked against Jasmine Paolini, when 62 of Paolini’s 85 points (almost 72 percent) came off Gauff’s unforced errors.

Bringing MacMillan on board proved wise. Her form sharpened at the China Open, where she stormed to her second straight title. But in Melbourne, that progress started to slip. Under pressure, her serve wavered again.

As one fan lamented on X, “Coco Gauff is playing terrible tennis again.”

Another fan saw something deeper. “Coco Gauff has to learn how to compose herself when going through a bad stretch in a game man. Her body language starts to get terrible way too quickly.”

They might have a point. Coco herself has spoken openly about the mental side of tennis, especially when it comes to facing Iga Swiatek. Though she defeated the Pole at the United Cup earlier this month, the head-to-head record still lingered in her mind, earning an honest confession from the American.

“In the past, there were no head-to-heads I felt really bad about, except that one. In the past, I used to think about it so much, because you want to get the one win. I think once I got that, I erased the other matches,” Coco Gauff explained after beating Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2 6-3 in the first round.

She added, “Obviously, she’s a great player, and she deserved those wins, but I felt like some of those losses, I won’t say a lot, because she just outplayed me, but some of them, at least at the beginning, it just was already on the mental deficit. I think once I erased that mental deficit, I was able to play free.”

For now, her run at the Australian Open ends in the quarterfinals. The furthest she had gone before was the semifinals in 2024. This year wasn’t her moment, but maybe she’ll return sharper and stronger. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below!