Coco Gauff crashed out of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships’ women’s singles draw on Sunday, July 7, with a devastating loss to Emma Navarro in the fourth round. Navarro bettered Gauff in straight sets on Centre Court in an hour and 16 minutes.
Gauff could convert only one break point opportunity on Navarro’s serve but the latter converted three. Also, she committed a total of 25 unforced errors and three double faults to concede a 4-6, 3-6 loss to her compatriot. Navarro, the 19th seed, will now face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the quarterfinals.
In the press conference that followed, the second seed revealed incoordination between herself and the team including coach Brad Gilbert and Jean-Cristophe Faurel.
“It has happened before… I wouldn’t say it has happened before with maybe the combination of JC and Brad. It’s happened before in the past where I felt like I needed more direction, they usually give me something,” Gauff said (at 1:57).
She, however, blamed no one but herself for the unfortunate result in London.
“I felt as today, I don’t think we were all in sync, but it’s no one’s blame except myself. I’m the player out there, I have to make decisions about myself on the court,” she added.
This was notably Coco Gauff’s second duel with Emma Navarro, who has now equaled the head-to-head tally at 1-1.
Coco Gauff: “We had a game plan going in and I felt that it wasn’t working”
Further, during the same conversation with the media, Coco Gauff felt that the initial game plan she devised with her team for Emma Navarro didn’t yield results so she had to resort to other strategies.
“We had a game plan going in and I felt that it wasn’t working so… I don’t always ask for advice from the box, but today was one of those rare moments where I felt like I didn’t have solutions. I don’t want to say I didn’t have any because I think I’m a capable player of coming up with some,” Gauff noted.
She continued:
“But I think today mentally I was just… there was a lot going on like I felt like I wanted more direction from the box.”
This was notably Coco Gauff’s fifth campaign at the Wimbledon Championships since her debut. She wasn’t able to top her previous best performances of reaching the fourth round in the years 2019 and 2021.
