Gauff beat Paula Badosa, who recently started improving, in the 16, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 round. While there are still some signs of trouble in her game, she has vastly improved her return on serves, as she converted 50% of receiving points against Badosa. In the post-match presser, she talked about how she improved her returns. “I think for me, it was just realizing that not everything needs to be a return winner. Also I did shorten my swings on the returns. I think just reps, honestly. That helps a lot, too.“Due to the Queen of the Court, returning became a prominent aspect of her routine. “Yeah, I think it came with just reps. I would spend a lot of time returning. One thing I learned from Serena, she would spend probably like an hour sometimes literally just hitting returns.”
