Paula Badosa Overcome By Emotions After Beating Coco Gauff at the Berlin Tennis Open

Paula Badosa came from behind to beat 2025 French Open champion Coco Gauff in the second round of the Berlin Tennis Open. The Spaniard, who has struggled with injuries for most of her career, turned emotional after the match as the victory was her first against a top-10 player on tour this season.

Badosa had one of the most forgettable clay-court seasons before arriving in Berlin. The former World No.2 didn’t participate in this year’s Roland Garros as she wasn’t given a wildcard and had to play in the qualifying rounds. She was struggling with fitness issues and good performance on the court, which didn’t help build her confidence on the court.

After defeating Suzan Lamens in the first round, she was expected to lose to Gauff in the second round of the Berlin Tennis Open. And at the start of the match, it looked as if Gauff faced a 3-0 lead in less than 30 minutes. After Badosa registered her game, Gauff then reeled off another three games to win the first set.

But in the second set, Badosa immediately flipped the match, winning three straight games, giving her the needed control. Gauff tried to reply, but she began to hit double faults and make uncharacteristic mistakes. That gave Badosa the momentum to run away with a 5-1 lead in the set.

In the decider, Gauff looked lost, racking up seven double faults, while Badosa ran away with the match victory 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 after an hour and 38 minutes at the Berlin Tennis Open. After the win, Badosa admitted that she feels very emotional, reflecting on her injuries on the court since last year and her victory over Gauff on the grass court:

You can see I’m very excited. Yes, it’s been very tough. A year ago, I got injured here, and since then I haven’t been able to play consistently. I’ve also been through a lot, professionally and personally. And now, to see myself playing at this level again means a lot to me. I know it’s only a couple of matches, but for me, the important thing is the level I played today against Coco, because she started incredibly well and I kept believing…

Paula Badosa gave a very emotional on-court interview after beating Coco Gauff in Berlin

“Oh my god.” 🥹

“You can see I’m very emotional. It’s been very tough. One year ago here I got injured. Since then I couldn’t play, like, constantly. I went through a lot professionally but… pic.twitter.com/aChCtlEZDO

— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) June 17, 2026

Badosa is now into the quarter-finals of the Berlin Tennis Open and will face eighth seed Linda Noskova on Friday (June 19). This is the Spaniard’s first last eight since the WTA 125 in Austin in March. She has struggled to win matches for most of this season and took a two-week break from the tour last month.

Coco Gauff hopes to win Wimbledon, but is unable to win her first grass-court match of the season

For the second consecutive season, Coco Gauff will enter the Wimbledon Championship without a grass-court win. Last year, she famously won the French Open after defeating Aryna Sabalenka in three sets in the final. But fell to Xinyu Wang in the second round of the Berlin Tennis Open and then crashed out in the first round of the Wimbledon Championship.

Gauff losing to Paula Badosa in the round of 16 means that she’s on course to finish the grass court season the way she finished last year. Before the start of the Berlin Tennis Open, she admitted that every Grand Slam, particularly the Wimbledon Championships, is important to her and hopes to win in the future:

Every Grand Slam has been important to me. Obviously, Serena and Venus have both won that tournament many times. It was always a tournament I watched growing up and one that I dreamed of winning. And it’s still a tournament I hope to win.

Gauff couldn’t get past the third round of this year’s French Open after losing to Anastasia Potapova. The American star has not been in her best form this season and sees herself outside the Top 5 in the WTA rankings. Further poor performances could see her drop out of the top 10 if she doesn’t bounce back.

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