Coco Gauff is disappointed by her
Wimbledon loss but doesn't want to dwell on it
[July 03, 2025]
By HOWARD FENDRICH
LONDON (AP) — Before Wimbledon began, Coco Gauff reflected on the
significance of her breakthrough performance at the place six years
ago — a run to the fourth round at age 15 — and what aspirations she
harbored as she prepared to return.
“Even when I see videos of me during that time, it just doesn’t feel
like it’s me. It felt like a dream. I’ll always have special
memories from that run and, I guess, it definitely fueled the belief
that I can be on tour and live out my dream,” she told The
Associated Press.
“It’s something that always holds a special place in my heart.
Obviously, I would love to win this tournament just for it to be
like a full-circle moment,” she continued. “I feel like it would be
like the start of the dream, and — I don’t want to say ‘the finish,’
because I obviously have a lot of career left, but — a full-circle
type of situation.”
A week after that conversation, the No. 2-ranked Gauff was out of
the bracket at the All England Club in the first round with a 7-6
(3), 6-1 loss to unseeded Dayana Yastremska at No. 1 Court on
Tuesday night. Gauff was undone by serving troubles, including nine
double-faults, and more than two dozen unforced errors in all, not
to mention Yastremska's hard, flat groundstrokes.
It was an abrupt, and mistake-filled, exit for Gauff, who so
recently earned her second Grand Slam title — at the French Open via
a three-set victory over No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final.
After Tuesday's defeat, Gauff 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.”
But as much as she'll want to move on and focus on what's to come,
the 21-year-old American acknowledged as she dabbed away the tears
welling in her eyes during her news conference that she felt “a
little bit disappointed in how I showed up today.”
It's instructive to remember — setting aside that captivating 2019
debut, which featured a victory over Venus Williams — that
Wimbledon's grass courts actually have produced Gauff's least
successful Grand Slam results.
Yastremska's take? She said she considers Gauff “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
home in the opening round. She's never been past the fourth round at
the All England Club, whereas at every other major tournament,
including the hard-court Australian Open, she's at least reached the
semifinals.
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Coco Gauff of the U.S. reacts during her first round women's single
match against Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine at the Wimbledon Tennis
Championships in London, Tuesday, July 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty
Wigglesworth)
Her first Slam trophy arrived on the hard courts of
the U.S. Open in 2023 when she was 19. She already was the 2022
runner-up on the red clay at the French Open before going one step
better this time.
Sabalenka's self-described “unprofessional” comments after last
month's title match in Paris became a real topic of conversation
and, perhaps, a distraction. Gauff and Sabalenka sought to put it
behind them — and tell fans they should, too — by filming TikTok
videos together once they got to Wimbledon.
“I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came
afterwards,” Gauff said, “so I didn’t feel like I had enough time to
celebrate and also get back into it.”
It's not easy to manage the tricky transition from the Roland-Garros
clay to the Wimbledon grass. There's a reason it's been a decade
since a woman won both in the same season — and a reason that woman
was Serena Williams.
By the end of the night, Gauff was eager to look ahead to the
upcoming North American hard-court circuit, culminating with a trip
to New York in late August.
“I mean, obviously I’m not going to dwell on this too long, because
I want to do well at the U.S. Open. Maybe losing here (in the) first
round isn’t the worst thing in the world,” she said, “because I have
time to reset.”
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