A week after World No. 2 Coco Gauff reminisced her breakthrough performance at Wimbledon six years ago when she had made it to the fourth round at the age of 15, she is out of reckoning of the prestigious Grand Slam tournament after losing 7-6 (3), 6-1 to unseeded Dayana Yastremska in the first round itself on Tuesday night.
Gauff was undone by her serves, which included nine double-faults and about 25 unforced errors. Yastremska's hard, flat groundstrokes also troubled the World No. 2. It was difficult to believe that it was the same Gauff who earned her second Grand Slam title at the French Open by defeating World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka about a month ago.
Her upset loss notwithstanding, Gauff wants to move on. “I mean, obviously I'm not going to dwell on this too long, because I want to do well at the US Open. Maybe losing here in the first round isn't the worst thing in the world because I have time to reset,” she said.
It was not easy for Gauff to manage the tough transition from the Roland-Garros clay to the Wimbledon grass. “I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came afterwards. So I didn’t feel like I had enough time to celebrate and also get back into it,” she said.
“I definitely was struggling in the locker room. I don't like losing. The main thing I'm sure my team and everyone is going to tell me (is): ‘You did well at Roland-Garros. Don't be so upset.’ Things like that,” Gauff said after the loss. But the 21-year-old American acknowledged as she dabbed away the tears welling in her eyes during her press conference that she felt “a little bit disappointed in how I showed up today”. Apart from her spectacular 2019 debut, which included a win over Venus Williams, Wimbledon has not been a happy hunting ground for Gauff.
Yastremska agreed. She said she considers Gauff a “much better on clay court and hard court than on grass”. This was the second time in the past three years that she was sent packing in the opening round. At every major tournament except Wimbledon, including the hard-court Australian Open, Gauff has at least reached the semifinals.
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