TEENAGE SENSATION COCO Gauff’s Wimbledon fairytale came to an end on Monday afternoon, as she lost to Romania’s former world number one Simona Halep 6-3, 6-3 in the last 16.
The 15-year-old American saved three match points, but was simply out-played by her more experienced opponent on Court One.
Halep, who is into the quarter-finals for the third time, plays Zhang Shuai for a place in the last four on Tuesday.
Gauff’s cause was not helped by appearing to have suffered an abdomen strain during the second set which entailed the trainer and doctor to attend to her whilst her glum-looking parents — father Corey who coached her initially and mum Candi — looked on from the players’ box.
Whilst on Friday Gauff had fought back against Polona Hercog from a set down and saved two match points, 2018 French Open champion Halep is used to this level and never gave her opponent a glimmer of a hope as she closed out the match after breaking the American to lead 4-2.
“I’m really happy that I can play again in the quarter-finals,” said Halep, who was also in the last eight in 2016 and 2017.
“I enjoyed a lot the crowd, the energy today, I felt it really well.
“I’m happy that I could play my best tennis I’m not comparing myself with last year. Last year was the best yet,” added the 27-year-old.
However, Gauff, who was playing her seventh match in a fortnight having come through qualifying, takes her leave having also improved her ranking markedly from 313 and announced herself as a future Grand Slam contender.
Meanwhile, Serena Williams breezed into the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro.
Previous form offered little indication that Williams’ pursuit of a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title would be knocked off course by Suarez Navarro, who had failed to win a set in their six previous meetings.
This proved a similarly forlorn assignment for the 30th seed, despite some good moments in the middle of each set as errors flowed from her esteemed opponent’s racquet more frequently than might have been expected.
Williams will face Alison Riske in the quarter-finals after her compatriot downed world number one Ashleigh Barty via a gruelling 96-minute encounter on Court Two.
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What an achievement for a 15 yr old. Amazing
@andyearley: when I was 15 I won my school 800m final……I feel like a complete underachiever now.
You see any gerries hanging inside suspicious looking clouds today?
@James Wormold: chin up never too late! The five yard dash to the bar when lights flash is my current speciality, never stop setting goals is what I say!
@ThatLJD: I love ur never give up attitude.
Great stuff at 15, just puts Becker’s win at 16 into perspective.
@Dougal67: in what way? They are both phenomenal achievements? As was Capriati’s semi at 15
@Dougal67: Becker was 17 when he won Wimbledon. If anything it shows how great Martina Hingis was, she contested all 4 grand slam finals (winning 3) at just 16.
@Paul Quirke: don’t mean to answer for fr dougal there but I wud imagine he means that Becker won and the others didn’t.
It would seem obvious what he meant but I’m here to tutor the less fortunate.
Now, tell me, did you see any gerries parked behind clouds today?
@Paul Quirke: Becker was 17 and she was 14
@The Bloody Nine: thats when tennis was tennis and I could pronounce their names..sigh!
Gauff’s parents must be overwhelmed with pride, hopefully an excellent management team will be employed to help the kid reach her full potential, and not be overcome by the vultures who will be looking to make money out of her.
Some fairly tough nuts to crack in week 2 Wimbledon. A great achievement though just to get there. The sponsors will be waiting for her when she gets home. Heard she’ll have her own tv network ‘Coco Channel’
@rowan hill: to echo the rest, why so?
I was hoping she’d win the whole thing. Remember the name
Thank phuic for that!
Will be back