Coco Gauff Recalls Tragic Dropshot Miss on Match Point During Wimbledon Semifinal Loss to Karolina Muchova: “I Just Panicked”

Coco Gauff’s run at Wimbledon ended on Thursday (July 9). In her career’s first semifinal at SW19, Gauff suffered a 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(10) defeat at the hands of Karolina Muchova in the quarterfinals.

The American ace, who before this season had never reached the quarterfinals, hit a drop shot on match point in the third set but missed. At the press conference afterward, Gauff admitted she panicked a bit after Muchova’s tricky return and ended up hitting that drop shot.

I mean, there’s one thing to be like ‘Oh why play a drop shot…’ but then I think about how many points I won off the drop shot. So it’s like, yes, people who don’t watch tennis are gonna be like ‘why did you do that?’ But at the end of the day… that’s the choice I made. Was it the right one in that moment? Maybe not. But also, if I make it, everyone’s gonna say how clutch of a shot that was. That’s just tennis. You lose some shots off margins.

Gauff was chasing her first title of the season, and she hasn’t yet won a title since the 2025 Wuhan Open. The 22-year-old is now 2-6 in the head-to-head matchups against Muchova.

The return came back in a tricky place for me. I didn’t expect it to, the bounce kind of caught me off guard. So I just panicked a little bit. But it takes moments like this to learn from and have a more clear and concise plan of what I wanna do. At the end of the day, I left it all out there. I don’t have any regrets. Obviously, points I wanna make better decisions on.

Coco Gauff added

Gauff was aiming to win her first title on grass. She has yet to play a final on the surface. Muchova, on the other hand, has already lifted a title on grass. Before arriving in London, Muchova was handed a walkover by four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka.

Muchova will be playing countrywoman Linda Noskova in the final. Noskova eliminated Marta Kostyuk in the second semifinal. Noskova, before this event, had never made it past the fourth round of Wimbledon or to the semifinals of a Major.

Coco Gauff mentions Roger Federer and Jannik Sinner to console herself

Coco Gauff wants to remain positive despite the defeat. She pointed out at the press conference that this is not the first time someone has missed a match point, recalling when Roger Federer missed match points and last year’s French Open, where Sinner squandered three match points against Carlos Alcaraz in the final.

I look at… Roger lost match points here. Jannik is obviously at Roland Garros. So every great champion has this happen in their career. Maybe this is something I need to be on their level.

Sinner also reached the semifinals, where he will be facing Novak Djokovic, whom he eliminated in last year’s Wimbledon semifinal but lost to in this year’s Australian Open semifinal.

In the first semifinal, Alexander Zverev will lock horns with fellow first-time Wimbledon semifinalist Arthur Fery. The Brit, in fact, had never made it past the second round of a Major before this event.

Sinner, the defending champion, holds a 6-5 head-to-head edge over Djokovic, who overcame Felix Auger-Aliassime in five sets, making it the longest quarterfinal match in the tournament’s history.

While Djokovic is chasing his first title of the season, Sinner has already lifted five trophies. He won the first five Masters 1000s of the season, and his win in Rome made him the second man after Nole to complete the Career Golden Masters.

Also read: Karolina Muchova Makes Unexpected Confession After Reaching Wimbledon Semifinals