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Coco Gauff’s 2024 Wimbledon campaign came to an abrupt end Tuesday night after a straight-sets loss to unseeded Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska, 7-6 (3), 6-1, on No. 1 Court. The second-seeded American became just the third woman in the Open era to lose in the first round at Wimbledon immediately following a French Open title.
Gauff acknowledged that the quick turnaround between the Grand Slam events may have impacted her preparation, saying she felt mentally “overwhelmed” after her win in Paris.
“I feel like mentally I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came afterwards,” Gauff said, via ESPN News Services. “So I didn't feel like I had enough time to celebrate and also get back into it.”
The 21-year-old committed 29 unforced errors and hit just six winners in the loss, including nine double faults. She also struggled on serve, landing only 45% of her first serves and winning less than half of her second-serve points. Yastremska, by contrast, hit 16 winners and kept the pressure on throughout the match.
“Dayana started off playing strong,” Gauff said. “I couldn't find my footing out there today.”
Tuesday’s result marks the second time in three years that Gauff has exited Wimbledon in the opening round. Despite making a breakthrough at the All England Club in 2019 as a 15-year-old — when she reached the fourth round after upsetting Venus Williams— Wimbledon remains the only Grand Slam where she has yet to reach the semifinals.
The upset also came just over three weeks after Gauff’s victory at Roland-Garros, where she defeated No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to claim her second major title. Since the start of the Open era in 1968, only Justine Henin (2005) and Francesca Schiavone (2010) had previously gone from winning the French Open to losing in the first round at Wimbledon.
Yastremska, currently ranked No. 42, had lost all three of her previous meetings against Gauff. She said her recent run to the grass-court final in Nottingham boosted her confidence.
“I was really on fire,” Yastremska said. “Playing against Coco, it is something special.”
Gauff, who was told about a court and time change roughly an hour before the match, did not blame logistics for the loss.
“I didn’t serve that well,” she said. “That’s what it is in the game.”
