Live: Gauff and Badosa locked in battle as quarterfinals get underway

That was an intense way to start the second set.

It got to deuce EIGHT times.

And it could be crucial. It seemed a vital one for Gauff to hold, but Badosa prevailed to break Gauff’s serve.

Gauff came out strong but is clearly struggling with her forehand – a perennial issue for the young American.

Badosa seemed to identify it and attack that wing, and it ultimately won her the game.

Badosa is up a break and holds serve to lead 2-0 in the second set.

This is just a hint of the quality of play out on Rod Laver Arena right now:

Our legends on court Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter have won the Legends Cup against James Blake and Tommy Haas in a fantastic 10-point tiebreak!

The final score was 6-3, 3-6, 10-8.

Now that was seriously entertaining on Kia Arena.

The duo are now signing hats and balls for kids in the crowd.

When asked if the match was enjoyable, Rafter said “no” with a chuckle afterwards.

“It was a lot of hard work and Hewitt did most of it.”

Meanwhile, Hewitt said he had a lot of fun.

“To come out here and play in legends is great.”

One of the final questions to Rafter was what will he do now to recover from the match.

“I’ll cramp before I get back to the locker room and I still sweat like a pig,” he said.

“I don’t do recovery anymore,” he laughed.

We could be headed for yet another upset at this tournament of upsets.

Paula Badosa has just taken the first set against world number 3 Coco Gauff.

Gauff was in great form following a United Cup win for the United States and winning last year’s end of year WTA Finals.

Gauff was clearly frustrated with herself and disappointed to lose the set, gesturing to her box in the final game.

Badosa looks convincing, but it’s not over yet.

As we saw in Gauff’s previous match against Swiss Belinda Bencic, she’s more than capable of coming back from a set down.

Badosa has shown some real courage in coming to the net, and it’s paying off.

She’s also managed to triumph in long baseline rallies over Gauff.

At 5-5 she went up 0-30 on Gauff’s serve, putting pressure on the 20-year-old American.

She lost the next two points but then won the next in one of the best rallies of the match.

A killer forehand polished off the game and secured the break for Badosa.

She now gets to serve for the set.

It’s an exciting start to the quarterfinals.

Paula Badosa reached a career high ranking of number two in the world in 2022, but has been plauged by a series of injuries and was forced to take time out from the sport.

This time last year she was ranked 100. Now her ranking is 12.

The 27-year-old Spaniard was voted the WTA Comeback Player of the year in 2024, and won the Washington title – her first in almost two years.

She’s also the girlfriend of Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas, who exited the Australian Open in the first round.

In a previous match she seemed to be frustrated with his comments from her box and appeared to turn the racquet grip to him, asking if he wanted to come down and play her opponent.

She said he does give her useful advice and tips after watching her matches.

“Even today in the match he was there. He really inspires me because he’s done so much already on the tennis world,” she said in her most recent press conference.

“For me, having somebody like him giving me his opinion, it’s something that I admire and I love it.”

It’s a close game so far.

Both held their first service games convincingly, but both were challenged to deuce on their second service games.

Each managed to hold, bringing the score to 2-2.

There have been moments of brilliance from each, with Badosa coming to the net in a gutsy play.

Gauff hit a great angle on a crosscourt forehand that landed right in the corner, getting a break point on Badosa’s serve.

But Gauff failed to convert.

Badosa held her most recent service game, slugging it out with Gauff from the baseline and coming out on top.

It’s tight at 4-4.

First up on Rod Laver Arena, we have the USA’s Coco Gauff against Spain’s Paula Badosa.

The pair have split their head-to-head 3-3, with world number three Gauff winning their two most recent encounters.

Gauff is the clear favourite going into this match, but Badosa, the 11th seed, has hit a rich vein of form recently. She’ll be looking to impose herself on this match.

Hello eager tennis fans and welcome to day 10 of the Australian Open!

We’re at the spicy end of the tournament as we get into the first lot of quarterfinal match ups.

We have four matches on Rod Laver Arena with each player vying to reach the semifinals.

Who will prevail? Time will tell.

That includes American Coco Gauff and Spaniard Paula Badosa who are currently fighting it out — we’re on serve at 2-2.

Aside from that there is heaps of doubles action — including some Aussie icons playing side by side in the Legends’ Cup.

Stay tuned as we bring you all the action from Melbourne Park.