Coco Gauff suffers surprise first-round exit against Sofia Kenin at Wimbledon
Four years ago, a 15-year-old Coco Gauff announced herself to the world at Wimbledon when she beat Venus Williams in the first round and made it through to the last 16. On Monday, the American, tipped by many as a possible champion this year, was bounced out in the first round, beaten 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 by a resurgent Sofia Kenin, herself a former grand slam champion who had lost her way. Nothing is guaranteed in tennis.
“Right now, I’m very frustrated and disappointed,” the No 7 seed said. “It makes me want to work even harder. I feel like I’ve been working hard but clearly it’s not enough. I have to go back to the drawing board and see where I need to improve and how to do the right drills to do that.”
Gauff looked to have weathered the storm when she recovered to level the match on Court No 1 at one set all but world No 128 Kenin, who had to qualify for the main draw, held her nerve brilliantly to claim one of the biggest victories since she won the Australian Open in 2020.
“This means a lot,” Kenin said. “I had to go through qualies, I battled out there, I took this match as any match, I’m just super proud of myself.”
Three years ago, Kenin was riding high towards the top of women’s tennis, having won the Australian Open and reached the final of the French Open.
But injuries to her ankles and an on-off coaching relationship with her father derailed her progress to the point where her ranking dropped outside the top 400 at one stage.
But on Monday, she played the kind of tennis that took her to grand slam glory and a career-high ranking of No 4, outfoxing Gauff with a series of drop shots, angles and aggressive hitting, which never allowed the American to truly settle. The key to the match came in the fourth game of the final set when Kenin held serve under enormous pressure; once she had done that, she pulled away for a deserved victory.
As well as Kenin played, Gauff contributed to her own downfall, in familiar fashion. Her serve, much improved of late, misfired with double faults at crucial times; her forehand, her achilles heel, let her down throughout, including on the final point when she dumped it into the net. As Kenin said: “I knew, in crucial moments, to hit to the forehand”.
“She had nothing to lose today,” Gauff said. “Obviously she won a grand slam but she’s in a tough spot in her career. So I knew coming in she would play with a lot of motivation.
“It was all about how I would play today and how I would take care of my end of the court. I did in certain moments but obviously it was not enough.”
Gauff had been seeded to meet world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals. Now Kenin takes that path.
It is easy to forget sometimes that there are plenty of things Swiatek still doesn’t know about the tennis world. The 22-year-old Pole has won three of the past five grand slam events – and four in all – but until Monday, she had never had to deal with the vagaries of the short rain delay.
“I actually haven’t got the experience I think of suspended match, then coming back after just like 15 minutes,” she said, after winning 6-1, 6-3. “I wanted to see how it’s going to go. So I’m happy that it went well and I could close it out.”
The fourth seed Jessica Pegula was tested by the American Lauren Davis before winning 6-2, 6-7 (8), 6-3. France’s Caroline Garcia, the No 5 seed, beat American Katy Volynets 6-4, 6-3 while the No 11 seed Daria Kasatkina, the runner-up in Eastbourne at the weekend, shrugged off a sore back to beat Caroline Dolehide 6-1, 6-4.