Coco Gauff is disappointed by her Wimbledon loss but doesn’t want to dwell on it

Earlier than Wimbledon started, Coco Gauff mirrored on the importance of her breakthrough efficiency on the place six years in the past — a run to the fourth spherical at age 15 — and what aspirations she harbored as she ready to return.

“Even once I see movies of me throughout that point, it simply doesn’t really feel prefer it’s me. It felt like a dream. I’ll at all times have particular recollections from that run and, I assume, it positively fueled the idea that I will be on tour and stay out my dream,” she advised The Related Press.

“It’s one thing that at all times holds a particular place in my coronary heart. Clearly, I’d like to win this event only for it to be like a full-circle second,” she continued. “I really feel like it will be like the beginning of the dream, and — I don’t need to say ‘the end,’ as a result of I clearly have quite a lot of profession left, however — a full-circle kind of state of affairs.”

Every week after that dialog, the No. 2-ranked Gauff was out of the bracket on the All England Membership within the first spherical with a 7-6 (3), 6-1 loss to unseeded Dayana Yastremska at No. 1 Court docket on Tuesday evening. Gauff was undone by serving troubles, together with 9 double-faults, and greater than two dozen unforced errors in all, to not point out Yastremska’s onerous, flat groundstrokes.

It was an abrupt, and mistake-filled, exit for Gauff, who so not too long ago earned her second Grand Slam title — on the French Open through a three-set victory over No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka within the closing.

After Tuesday’s defeat, Gauff mentioned, “I positively was struggling within the locker room. I don’t like dropping. The primary factor I’m positive my staff and everybody goes to inform me (is): ‘You probably did properly at Roland-Garros. Don’t be so upset.’ Issues like that.”

However as a lot as she’ll need to transfer on and concentrate on what’s to return, the 21-year-old American acknowledged as she dabbed away the tears welling in her eyes throughout her information convention that she felt “a bit bit dissatisfied in how I confirmed up at this time.”

It’s instructive to recollect — setting apart that fascinating 2019 debut, which featured a victory over Venus Williams — that Wimbledon’s grass courts even have produced Gauff’s least profitable Grand Slam outcomes.

Yastremska’s take? She mentioned she considers Gauff “a lot better on clay court docket and onerous court docket than on grass.”

This was the second time prior to now three years that she was despatched dwelling within the opening spherical. She’s by no means been previous the fourth spherical on the All England Membership, whereas at each different main event, together with the hard-court Australian Open, she’s a minimum of reached the semifinals.

Her first Slam trophy arrived on the onerous courts of the U.S. Open in 2023 when she was 19. She already was the 2022 runner-up on the crimson clay on the French Open earlier than going one step higher this time.

Sabalenka’s self-described “unprofessional” feedback after final month’s title match in Paris turned an actual subject of dialog and, maybe, a distraction. Gauff and Sabalenka sought to place it behind them — and inform followers they need to, too — by filming TikTok movies collectively as soon as they acquired to Wimbledon.

“I used to be a bit bit overwhelmed with all the things that got here afterwards,” Gauff mentioned, “so I didn’t really feel like I had sufficient time to have a good time and in addition get again into it.”

It’s not simple to handle the difficult transition from the Roland-Garros clay to the Wimbledon grass. There’s a motive it’s been a decade since a girl received each in the identical season — and a motive that girl was Serena Williams.

By the tip of the evening, Gauff was wanting to look forward to the upcoming North American hard-court circuit, culminating with a visit to New York in late August.

“I imply, clearly I’m not going to dwell on this too lengthy, as a result of I need to do properly on the U.S. Open. Possibly dropping right here (within the) first spherical isn’t the worst factor on the earth,” she mentioned, “as a result of I’ve time to reset.”