Coco Gauff has not always found it easy to force herself back into matches.
In fact, across her first three years on the WTA Tour, Gauff was defeated in 13 of the 22 matches in which she lost the opening set.
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Yet since the start of the 2023 season, the 20-year-old has recorded 16 comeback victories at Tour level.
That includes winning eight of her last 10 Grand Slam ties in which she has gone a set down, and the latest example of her fighting spirit was provided on Sunday, as she hit back to beat Belinda Bencic 5-7 6-2 6-1 to book her quarterfinal spot at Australian Open 2025.
The US Open 2021 champion is now 16-6 in deciding sets at the Slams. What is more impressive, is how Gauff so swiftly regrouped after dropping a set for the first time this season.
She has now won five of her nine career WTA matches after losing the first 5-7, too. That run includes a victory over Paula Badosa, who she will face in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Gauff was in complete control across those final two sets against Bencic, a gold medallist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, at Rod Laver Arena.
In seeing out an ultimately convincing win – her second against the Swiss – she became just the fifth woman to start off a season with nine wins, after Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Serena Williams and Margaret Court.
“It’s pretty crazy to be among an insane stat line with legends,” Gauff said afterwards.
There are more stats for Gauff to be proud of, too.
The 20-year-old has become the youngest player to win her first nine WTA-level matches in consecutive seasons since Seles did so in 1992 and 1993.
Gauff is the first woman to win their first nine matches of a season in consecutive years since Victoria Azarenka did so in 2012 and 2013.
Since the start of the 2020 season, only two women – world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka (11) and world No.2 Iga Swiatek (nine) – have reached more Grand Slam quarterfinals than Gauff, who has now made that stage at the majors on eight occasions.
When taking just players aged under 21 into account, then since the start of 2000, only Kim Clijsters (nine), Serena Williams (nine) and Maria Sharapova (12) have reached more Slam quarterfinals than Gauff.
Sharapova (81) is also the only woman in the 21st century to have recorded more major match wins than Gauff (64) before turning 21, while Gauff has become the first player in that age bracket since Sharapova in 2007 and 2008 to reach back-to-back AO quarterfinals.
Gauff will now ready herself for a seventh career meeting with Badosa.
Win, and Gauff will be into her fifth career semifinal at the majors, which would bring her level with Justine Henin for semifinal appearances at the Slams before turning 21.
It could also bring up a rematch against Sabalenka, who downed Gauff at the same stage at AO 2024.
In the Open era, there have been two pairs of women who met in the semifinals at successive editions of the AO.
Pam Shriver and Martina Navratilova faced off in the last four in 1981, 1982 and 1983, with Navratilova progressing on each occasion. Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport went head-to-head in back-to-back semifinals in 2000 and 2001, claiming one victory each.
When it comes to consecutive men’s AO semifinals, we have had Steve Denton v Hank Pfister in 1981 and 1982, Pat Cash v Ivan Lendl in 1987 and 1988 and, most recently, Daniil Medvedev v Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2021 and 2022.
Gauff and Sabalenka, then, could add to a rather short list, should they manage to set up that mouthwatering reunion.
Beating Badosa will be no easy task for the American, though.
The pair share a 3-3 record, with AO 2025 11th seed Badosa coming out on top in their last meeting on a hard court, which came in San Jose back in 2022.
However, Gauff, as her second-round opponent Jodie Burrage put it, “carries the weight of a champion”.
Gauff certainly responded like a champion against Bencic. If she continues like that, then a second major title is well within reach.