Coco Gauff Strives to Achieve her Best Grass Version at Wimbledon

The grass court remains the only surface on which Coco Gauff has never reached a final. The American star has impressed at the Berlin Tennis Open and Eastbourne, but only managed to reach the semi-finals. At the Wimbledon Championships, she will look to break the curse after reaching the fourth round on Friday (July 3).

Gauff had arrived at Wimbledon without a grass-court match victory. Everything was looking for Gauff the same way it did last year, when she lost her opening matches at the Berlin Tennis Open and Wimbledon. But at this year’s grass-court Grand Slam, she has played sensational tennis, winning three matches.

She won her third match at the All England Club on Friday (July 3) on Center Court against qualifier Claire Liu. The former World No.2 won the first set but slipped in the second set, giving Liu the confidence for the decider. But Gauff bounced back from the near collapse by winning the third set finely, 6-3, 6(5)-7, 6-2.

The win secured her place in the round of 16 for the second time in her career. The last time she reached the fourth round at Wimbledon was in 2019, when she made her debut. She now has the opportunity to reach the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam for the first time in her career.

Gauff will play against Belinda Bencic on Sunday (July 5), a match that is expected to be a tough one for both players. Gauff is the favorite to win the clash, but she’s not worried about it, as she revealed during her media interview that she’s striving to play better as she continues to impress at Wimbledon:

I feel like I played very well at some moments and not so well at others. I guess that’s tennis. I would definitely like to play a bit better. But I don’t know, I feel like it’s because this isn’t a surface where I always feel comfortable. I’m really just trying to learn and see what works for me. I feel like today I didn’t necessarily stick to the things that were working to maintain the advantage. With the serve, I was aggressive today.

Gauff is yet to win a title this season. She has been to two finals but ended up as runner-up. She kicked off her grass-court swing at the back of a disappointing Roland Garros campaign. The 2025 champion crashed out of the French Open in the third round after losing to Anastasia Potapova in three sets.

Coco Gauff’s serving errors have reduced at Wimbledon

Since the Wimbledon Championships, Coco Gauff’s serve has been getting a lot better than they were for much of this season. She has been heavily criticized for not tackling her serving issues earlier on in her career, which has not been one of her major weaknesses on the court. Her opponents have exploited it on several occasions, using it to beat her on the court.

However, against Claire Liu, the American star hit just 6 double faults, while racking up 22 unforced errors. Liu finished the match with 45 unforced errors, 39 of which came from her groundstrokes alone. Speaking after the match, Gauff admitted that she’s happy that errors in her serve have reduced at Wimbledon:

There were no serves today that I felt had to go in no matter what. I just tried to be aggressive towards a big target on second serves. On the first ones, I went for my shots. I think it’s better when I play like that. I believe that when I go strong, I have faith that it will enter because I know I can always place my serve.

Gauff will face Belinda Bencic in the fourth round. She leads the Swiss star 5-2 in their head-to-head record and has won their last three meetings on tour. However, three of their last four meetings have ended in nervy three-setters. Bencic last won against Gauff at the Indian Wells Open last year in the quarter-finals.

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