Coco Gauff doesn’t have an entirely new strategy for her game at Wimbledon and is defeated by Emma Navarro
Coco Gauff fell her fourth-round match of Wimbledon in the fourth round to Emma Navarro. Navarro won 6-4, 6-3. Gauff, who was second in the draw, was never in the fourth round of Wimbledon.
London (AP) -It was not going as planned with Coco Gauff in her match against Emma Navarro at Centre Court and she was not doing so well in fact and she was constantly looking into her guests box in search of assistance with her coaching. One of them, Brad Gilbert, would stand up and gesture and they would go between themselves but a solution was not found.
Gauff hasn’t made her way past the fourth round of Wimbledon She had to leave at the fourth round again on Sunday, beaten in the fourth round by Navarro the 6-4 7-6 in an all-American game.
“We had the game plan in place and I could tell it was not performing. I’m not a fan of asking suggestions from the box, but today was one those rare instances where I wasn’t sure if I had options,” said Gauff, the current U.S. Open champion and seeded at No. 2 at the All England Club. “I would not like to claim I didn’t have any since I’m sure in coming up with a few. Today, in my mind, it was quite a bit of things going on. I was feeling like I needed some direction.”
Hers was just the latest in a string of withdrawals from top females from the Wimbledon tournament this year: No. 1 Iga Swiatek was eliminated on Saturday, and No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka pulled out due to an injured shoulder before participating in the match, and No. 6 Marketa Vondrousova the champion of last year was beaten in the opening round.
There are only two of the 10 most highly-seeded women are still there the champions of 2022 Elena Rybakina, who’s No. 4 and the most the recent French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini who is ranked number. 7 and will play Navarro in the following round. Rybakina will play her fourth round match on Monday Paolini was able to advance on Sunday after Madison Keys stopped playing because she suffered an injury.
The 19th seeded Navarro who makes notes in her smartphone to help prepare for tournaments, reached an important quarterfinal in the very first round. She demonstrated exactly what kind of tennis that she’s capable performing in her second round in which she defeated the four-time grand tennis champion Naomi Osaka.
“I’m convinced that this could be true as it’s taking place. I’m beginning to wonder”Why me? Why can’t I? Why do I not make it to the quarterfinal? Why can’t i go to the top at Grand Slams?” said Navarro 23 who was born within South Carolina and won the 2021 NCAA championship in her debut season at the University of Virginia.
The following day, the actress spotted the chemistry that Gauff had with Gilbert — as well as Gauff’s displeasure growing with her performance.
“I do not usually give the opposing part of court as much energy. I prefer to stay on my own side. (But) I can imagine that seeing her annoyed and looking at her box, and putting her arms in the air, it definitely gives her a an increase in confidence,” Navarro said. “I guess it maybe gave me a little bit of momentum and just some energy that I needed.”
Alongside Gauff’s award of New York last September, the 20-year-old from Florida has finished second in the French Open and reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open.
The first big breakthrough was during the All England Club at age 15 in which she became the youngest player to qualify for the tournament and defeated Venus Williams in the first round to advance to the fourth round, Gauff has not been able to match this feat.
She also lost in the fourth round of her second appearance in 2021. She she was knocked out at the 3rd round of 2022 as well as the first round one year earlier.
On Sunday, she kept making errors, resulting in more than double the number of unforced errors 25, as winning 12, 12. Her most significant issue was her shot, which players know is her weakness which is the forehand.
Navarro continued to strike on the opposite side, and it worked.
“I really wanted to attack her forehand,” Navarro later said.
Gauff committed 16 unforced mistakes using forehands and 16 forced errors, which accounted for 32 of the total points scored by Navarro.
“I have the ability to raise my level when players play well, and I feel I didn’t do that today,” Gauff said.
She explains that when she’s asked for a mid-game assist from her coaches previously, “They usually gave me something,” however, she added: “I don’t think we were all in sync.”
“No one’s (to) blame except myself,” Gauff declared. “I mean, I’m the player out there.”
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis