What went wrong for Coco Gauff after the bad Wimbledon run?

Gauff described her loss to Kenin as the lowest point of her career, but fortunately, you can only go up once you’ve hit rock bottom. The recovery was spectacular, culminating in her victory at the US Open, and even then Gauff pointed to the Kenin match as a kind of trigger that forced her to change a few things in her approach.

One big thing she changed was that she didn’t worry about it too much. The loss to Kenin was because it was at Wimbledon. She spoke candidly about how the event used to give her a lot of pressure because that’s where it all started for her. She was 15 and she beat Venus Williams there, which set the bar high, and she felt suffocated by it. Once she let go of that, she was able to play freely again, and that’s why the US Open series was so successful.

The approach continued this year, so Gauff came to Wimbledon with a lot of confidence that everything would go well. She would play both singles and doubles and it would go well, right? At least that’s how it started. Gauff won her opening match against Caroline Dolehide 6-1 6-2 and showed a similar level against Anca Todoni 6-2 6-1.

Her only preparation for the event was at the Berlin Open, where she played well but lost to Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals. After beating native player Sonay Kartal 6-4 6-0, Gauff’s chances of reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon quickly increased, but everything would go wrong in her next singles match.

She was up against compatriot Emma Navarro, whom she had defeated 6-3, 6-1 in Auckland earlier that year. It was a matchup that suited her and everyone expected Gauff to win it easily and secure a quarter-final. She ended up playing a pretty awful match in many ways.

Coco Gauff will defend her title with more questions than answers.

Funny enough, she started the match quite well.

She was the first to break, taking a 3-2 lead, but as often happens, she couldn’t hold on to that break. She gave it right back, and then squandered two more break points to climb back up. Everything fell apart for Gauff, who was becoming increasingly frustrated with what was happening on the court. Navarro had a very clear idea of ​​what she wanted to do, and she shared that after beating Gauff.

“I really wanted to attack her forehand. I think she wanted to do the same to me. We were in a lot of forehand cross-court rallies. It was a cat-and-mouse game, who’s going to change the pattern first.”

That was a smart strategy, because Gauff has a notorious problem with her forehand, especially under pressure. It’s probably one of the weakest forehands of any top player, and that’s a problem. She should have worked on it in the off-season last year, but there hasn’t been a dramatic improvement. It’s more stable now, but it’s still far from good, and that’s a problem.

This match against Navarro proved problematic as she could not keep up with the forehand exchanges. Another thing Navarro wanted to do was attack the serve.

“Then I wanted to attack her serve and make her feel like if she hits a second serve, she wouldn’t feel comfortable with her second serve, and therefore she wouldn’t feel comfortable with her first serve either.”

That’s another smart move, because Gauff can have a hard time with her serve. That match was one of those days. She hit her first serve only 56% of the time, and Navarro was on full alert when she didn’t, winning more than 50% of those rallies. That put pressure on Gauff, who lost the opening set 6-4.

The second set was equally challenging, with Gauff failing to create a single break point and losing 6-3. She finished the match with just 12 winners and 25 unforced errors, most of which came from her forehand. This performance was simply not up to par in today’s competitive tennis landscape. Navarro’s well-executed plan, which focused on Gauff’s weaknesses, left her without an effective answer.

That’s a problem, because most of what went wrong for her is easy to fix. She should fix it, but she has yet to actually do it. Maybe this match will finally convince her to tackle the forehand, because many former players have pointed to it as a problem in her game. You need a forehand in today’s tennis, and if you don’t have one, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

And that was it. That’s what went terribly wrong. When she faced a player who could expose her weaknesses, she just had nothing to go against. She has the same problem against Iga Swiatek, who is a much better hitter than she is, and you can see that when they play.

As for the doubles, it was a decent run, but then they ran into Elise Mertens and Su-Wei Hsieh and were swept away 6-2 6-1 in straight sets. The Belgian-Taiwanese duo is simply too strong at the moment and Pegula and Gauff haven’t really played together much yet, which was evident in this match. They are still a major threat for the upcoming Olympics, where Gauff will be hoping to win a gold medal. We’ll see if her forehand remains stable enough to make that happen, but with Iga Swiatek looking monstrous on clay, I doubt it.