Paula Badosa admits when she thought about quitting tennis after beating Coco Gauff at the Australian Open

Paula Badosa achieved one of the finest wins of her career at the Australian Open by beating Coco Gauff.

The Spaniard is certainly back to her best after a nightmare run of injuries and she is now into the first Grand Slam final of her career.

She needed one hour and 43 minutes to claim a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Coco Gauff to secure the first top 10 win of her career at a major.

Paula Badosa was delighted with the victory, and a type of win she was unsure she would be able to experience.

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Australian Open semi-finalist Paula Badosa says she thought about retirement following injury nightmare

Badosa produced a tidy display against Gauff which included 15 winners and 23 unforced errors.

The American recorded 31 winners, more than double her opponent’s, but 41 unforced errors hampered her progress and significantly contributed to Gauff’s first loss of the year.

Furthermore, Gauff won just 35% of the points behind her second serve as Badosa converted four of her 10 break points on the way to victory.

Badosa sank to her knees with delight after securing arguably the biggest win of her career, and admitted in her press conference that she would not have had this moment if she decided to leave the game following her nightmare run of injuries.

“A few months ago I didn’t know if I could play tennis anymore. It was at one point last year that I was pretty close to retiring because I wasn’t seeing myself at the level,” Badosa said.

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“The back wasn’t responding well. I didn’t find any solutions. But I wanted to keep it a last try, a last chance to finish the year and let’s see how it would go.

“Well, here I am. So I’m really proud of what we went through with all my team and especially how I fought through all that, especially mentally.”

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Paula Badosa joins elite Spanish tennis list after reaching Australian Open semi-finals

Badosa will face World number one Aryna Sabalenka in the last four at the Australian Open.

By defeating Gauff, Badosa became just the fourth Spanish woman in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam singles semifinal.

The other women are Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Conchita Martinez, who is now the coach of Mirra Andreeva, and Garbine Muguruza.

Each of these women went on to become Grand Slam champions and Badosa will give everything she has to join that club.

“Today I came in, and I wanted to play my best game, and I think I did it,” Badosa said post-match. “Coco, at the beginning, she was playing insane tennis, but I’m super proud of the level I gave today.”

“A year ago, I was here with my back [injury] that I didn’t know if I had to retire from this sport, and now I’m here, playing the best in the world. I won today, I’m in the semifinals, and I never would think that a year later, I would be here.”

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