Coco Gauff books first-ever Wimbledon semifinal appearance

LONDON: The former French Open champion and American tennis star Coco Gauff made it into her first-ever Wimbledon semifinal, beating compatriot Jessica Pegula in her quarterfinal match.

On Tuesday, Gauff outclassed Pegula 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 after dropping the first set, securing her first-ever Wimbledon semifinal appearance and now has a shot at her second Grand Slam title, having won the French Open last year.

The one-hour, 48-minute win made the two-time Grand Slammer the seventh active women’s player to reach the semifinals or beyond in all Grand Slam events in her career, joining the elite list of Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Karolina Pliskova, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.

Coco Gauff, Wimbledon semi-finalist for the first time #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/zu9s25KGem

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 7, 2026

Gauff, who played four successive three-set matches in her past five outings, called her run at Wimbledon “pretty insane”, having entered the tournament with a four-match losing streak on grass, coming from a set down to beat Belinda Bencic in the round of 16.

She will be a favourite as her next challenge is the number 10 seed Karolina Muchova, against whom she has a strong 6-1 win-loss record. “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,” she said. “Jess is an incredible opponent and person; playing against her is never easy. I am just happy to get through this one today,” she added.

“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,” Gauff said. “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 continued.

“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,” she signed off. (ANI)