Coco Gauff, who won the French Open title, was defeated 7-6 (3), 6-1 by the unseeded Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine on Tuesday night, making her just the third woman in the Open era to lose in the first round at Wimbledon.
The No. 2-ranked Gauff finished with just six winners and 29 unforced errors, including nine double-faults, after making mistake after mistake at No. 1 Court. On the second day of the event, she bowed out along with No. 3 Jessica Pegula, another highly placed American.
With 16 victories, Yastremska declared, “I was really on fire.” Playing against Coco is a unique experience.
Gauff was celebrating her second Grand Slam victory just over three weeks ago when she defeated No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the Roland-Garros red clay final. Additionally, the 21-year-old American won the 2023 U.S. Open trophy.
The grass-court tournament has turned out to be Gauff’s least successful major, despite the fact that she got her big break at the All England Club in 2019 at the age of 15, defeating Venus Williams in her first match and advancing to the fourth round.
Gauff hasn’t advanced past the semifinals in any Slam.
She has been sent home in the first round twice in the last three years and has yet to get past the fourth round.
Most players have found the switch from clay to grass difficult, and Serena Williams was the last woman to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in the same season ten years ago.
However, only Francesca Schiavone in 2010 and Justine Henin in 2005 went from winning the trophy in Paris to losing it right away in London since the Open era started in 1968.
Against Yastremska, who had lost all three of their prior meetings and is presently ranked 42nd, Gauff was never quite at her best on Tuesday. Despite having only a 10-11 record in majors first-round matches going into this tournament, Yastremska’s best Grand Slam performance was reaching the semifinals on the hard courts of the Australian Open previous year.
At that point, Gauff was 20-3, which included a 2023 Wimbledon loss to Sofia Kenin.
Despite reaching the junior tournament final in 2016, Yastremska’s deepest run at Wimbledon was reaching the fourth round in 2019.
At a smaller event in Nottingham, she recently advanced to her maiden tournament final on grass, which she said gave her confidence going into the All England Club.
I adore playing on grass. With a giggle, Yastremska remarked, “I think we are kind of friends this year.” Here, I hope the journey will continue.
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