15-year-old Coco Gauff, who caused a major upset in the third round when she knocked out defending champion Naomi Osaka, failed to make it to her first quarterfinal of a Grand Slam as she lost to Sofia Kenin at the Melbourne Arena on Sunday.
In what was the first meeting between two of the most promising youngsters, Kenin rallied to defeat Gauff 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-0 in the match that lasted for two hours and nine minutes to reach her first-ever Majors quarterfinal.
Despite dropping the tight first set, 21-year-old Kenin held her serve comprehensively at the later stages as she won nearly three-quarters of points on her first and dropped serve only a single time.
World number 67 Gauff scored 39 winners in comparison to Kenin’s 28 but the latter had just 22 unforced errors while the American teenager blasted 48 miscues.
Gauff had overcome a 3-1 setback in the opening set to make it 4-4 before winning it on the tie-breaker. However, Kenin looked more determined in the following sets as she took early leads in both of them.
The 14th seed took a 4-1 lead in the second set before serving for it at 5-2. However, Gauff fought back to break her and make it 5-3, but Kennin was up to the task as well and won the set in the next game.
The third set witnessed the best Tennis of the day from Kennin as she broke Gauff in the opening game and took a 3-0 lead. Though at 5-0, Gauff provided some resistance and saved a match point to take the game to deuce, the teenager eventually failed to stage a fightback in another three-setter.