Gauff stunned in first round on day of upsets

Wimbledon 2025

Venue: All England Club Dates: 30 June-13 July

French Open champion Coco Gauff, a contender for the Wimbledon title, was stunned in the first round as three of the top seeds fell on a day of shocks at the All England Club.

The American second seed was beaten 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 by Ukraine world number 42 Dayana Yastremska on a packed Court One under the roof.

Gauff, 21, was predicted to go far at SW19 following her triumph at Roland Garros less than a month ago.

But a performance strewn with double faults and unforced errors handed Yastremska a rare opportunity against the world number two and she grasped it with both hands to reach the second round.

The shock result follows first-round exits for fellow top-five seeds Jessica Pegula and Zheng Qinwen on day two at the Championships.

Just three-and-a-half weeks ago Gauff was on top of the world having lifted the trophy at Roland Garros after beating world number one Aryna Sabalenka.

But a lacklustre performance laden with mistakes on her unfavoured surface of grass left the two-time major winner heading out early against the unseeded Yastremska.

Since winning her first title on the Paris clay last month she has played just one match, a first-round defeat by qualifier Wang Xinyu of China at the Berlin Open.

In that match, she was plagued by double faults and those demons were back to haunt her again at SW19.

It was immediately clear Yastremska would prove a tricky challenge for Gauff and she was on the defence from the off.

A ripping backhand down the line secured Yastremska the early break of serve before she earned set point at 5-4 but double faulted and Gauff broke back to force a tie-break.

But double faults were already a feature of Gauff’s game and two in the breaker put Yastremska firmly in control before a crunching forehand winner brought more set points and she took the opener at the first time of asking.

Gauff left court between sets to regroup but immediately went down a break as the mistakes continued to come.

She found no answers to Yastremska’s powerful groundstrokes, recording nine double faults and 29 unforced errors as she suffered a triple break to concede the match.

Pegula said her first-round exit earlier on Tuesday was her “worst result of the year” as she was beaten by a player ranked 113 places below her.

The 31-year-old had heavy strapping on her right knee but said that did not bother her as she was dismantled in just 58 minutes on Court Two by Cocciaretto.

“This is definitely probably the worst result I’ve had all year,” the American said.

“I’ve been winning lots of matches. It’s just all about it having to come together for two weeks. Sometimes it doesn’t quite all align when you need it to. “

Pegula has only once gone beyond the quarter-final stage of a major – at last year’s US Open where she lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the final – and has gone out before the last eight in all three Grand Slam tournaments since.

This marks her worst performance at a major since the 2020 French Open.

Less than three hours later she was followed out of the door by Chinese fifth seed Zheng after a grass-court lesson from doubles champion Siniakova.

Siniakova, who has won the Wimbledon women’s doubles title three times, showed her grass-court pedigree to ensure Zheng’s challenge ended at the first hurdle for the third year in a row. It was the Czech who also knocked her out at the same stage two years ago.

Polish eighth seed Iga Swiatek advanced with a comprehensive 7-5 6-1 victory over Russia’s Polina Kudermetova.