American tennis player Coco Gauff secured her first Wimbledon semifinal spot by defeating compatriot Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
After losing the first set, Gauff prevailed 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a one-hour, 48-minute match.
This victory marks Gauff’s debut in the Wimbledon semifinals and gives her the opportunity to contend for her second Grand Slam title, having won the French Open last year. By reaching this stage, Gauff became the seventh active woman to make the semifinals or beyond at all four Grand Slam events, joining Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Karolina Pliskova, Aryna Sabalenka, and Iga Swiatek.
Gauff has played four successive three-set matches in her last five appearances, describing her Wimbledon run as “pretty insane”. She entered the tournament on a four-match losing streak on grass but came back from a set down to defeat Belinda Bencic in the round of 16.
Her next opponent will be the number 10 seed Karolina Muchova, against whom Gauff holds a strong 6-1 record. Reflecting on her performance, Gauff said: “Considering I had not won a match on grass in two years before this tournament … I am definitely just really happy with how I played today.”
On her opponent and match dynamics, she added: “Jess is an incredible opponent and person; playing against her is never easy. I am just happy to get through this one today.”
Gauff analysed her gameplay, stating: “I felt like in the first set I was maybe rushing out of some points too early, either trying to get out of the rally or overhit too much.” She continued, “Towards the end, I just really honed in on my game and realised I do not have to play a spectacular point every time to win, even though there were some spectacular points.” She concluded, “I think just trusting myself, trusting that my groundstrokes are good enough to be with anyone on this surface. I think my last match against Belinda showed that. Obviously, today against Jess I think showed that, as well.”