Coco Gauff could have been in a lot of pain.
Coming off of her first major final at the French Open, she arrived at Wimbledon with a lot of confidence. One of the favorites at this tournament, Gauff made her seemingly inevitable breakthrough and won the title.
On Saturday, with the Centre Court crowd firmly behind her and coming off of a dominating second-round win, the 18-year-old looked very much poised to advance to the fourth round at Wimbledon.
Gauff raced out to a three-point lead against his American opponent. After that, it wasn't easy. Gauff took the first set on a tiebreak.
The rest of the match was won by her. Gauff was handed the earliest exit of her career at the All England Club when she was defeated in her first-round match by 20-year-old Anisimova. After the match, Gauff rushed off the court, but she could already see the bigger picture.
Gauff said that he did what he could in the match. She did a good job. I played well at times and not well at others. She was the superior player.
There's a lot of things I need to improve on. I think I can improve. I feel like I have gotten better over this trip, and that's all I can ask for.
Gauff will turn her attention to her mixed doubles run with Jack Sock, and then focus on the upcoming hard-court portion of the summer She will remain a contender at the year's final major and have all of the expectations and attention that have followed her since she first came on, despite not knowing her schedule for the lead-in events ahead of the US Open.
The hopes have been high for Gauff ever since she defeated Venus Williams on Centre Court in her opening match at the All England Club in 2019. Since she was a junior, many have seen her as the sport's next big star.
She had been the focus of an apparel bidding war before she was allowed to drive. Three years ago, she ran at Wimbledon and it was the next step. That success made more people aware of it.
There were restrictions on how much she could play on tour due to her age and the coronaviruses disrupted the season. Gauff continued to improve her game despite her lack of big results on the Grand Slam stage. She won two singles titles, at Linz and Parma, and four doubles titles, including her first of any kind at the 1000 level. She played in the doubles final at the US Open and reached the quarterfinals at the French Open.
She had a good result at the French Open. Gauff never needed more than 90 minutes on the court and never dropped a set. She admitted to her doubles partner that people were expecting her to win her matches but she didn't let it affect her.
It appeared that everything was coming together as it should.
Iga Swiatek was simply too good for Gauff in the final and there was no doubt about it. She knew there was a lot to be happy about, but she couldn't hide her tears.
"I know I've been saying a lot, 'Oh, it's just a tennis match, you know, it doesn't matter,' but really, that's what I believe,'" Gauff said after the French Open final It doesn't mean anything. Tomorrow I'm going to wake up and be really proud of myself because I'm feeling so much emotion now.
Gauff was a betting favorite to win the Wimbledon title because of his previous success on grass and the fact that Swiatek had never played it before. In Berlin, she reached the semifinals. She would one day be a multi-Grand Slam winner according to Rafael Nadal.
It was not going to happen. This time, not.
Over the years, there have been many teenagers on tour to win Grand Slam titles, such as Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Gauff has plenty of time to join the esteemed list, but that doesn't seem to be something she is focused on.
Stevenson, who reached the Wimbledon semifinals as an 18-year-old, said that it was more of a media thing. She has a good idea of what is expected of her. She doesn't care about what other people think, she just takes it one day at a time. All she needs to do is listen to her parents, her coaches and herself.
Opinions don't matter. She does that. She believes in herself and knows she can do it. She knows what she needs to work on even if she loses.
Gauff has had the worst results of her short career at the US Open. She lost in her opener in 2020 and in the second round in 2021. She didn't think about the hard-court season or the tournament until she was done with Wimbledon.
Gauff returned to the court just hours after the loss. She was just as excited to be on the smaller No. 3 court as she was on Centre court. Their partnership gave her a new goal after they won their first round match.
I was so upset after the match. I was going to have fun out there. I had a good time. I was happy and smiling all the time. It's not usually possible to do that with the intensity of singles and doubles.
It was weird to play with him. I'm glad I was able to do that because it was definitely a bucket list for me. I hope that we can continue to win.
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