One might wonder just how successful Coco Gauff would be if she could simply clean up her serve. The odd part is that she hasn't yet done that. After winning two majors, she could challenge for WTA No. 1 for a long time, but she too often gets herself in trouble with her serve.
This was the case in the opening set against fellow American Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon 2026. Pegula got an early break, but Gauff eventually broke back. The problem was that Gauff wasn't holding with ease, due to her having too many double-faults. She had four in the first set alone.
Gauff also wasn't doing herself any favors with her groundstrokes, hitting six winners but 16 unforced errors. Pegula wasn't playing perfectly, but certainly higher than Gauff's level.
Coco Gauff defeats Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon 2026
As tennis fans know, however, one can never count Gauff out of a match. Her ability to return serve is simply too great. She also has as good an athletic ability as anyone in the sport, man or woman. She can chase down well-hit balls and return them with force. Even after dropping the first set, a third set appeared likely.
In the second set, Gauff and Pegula both struggled to hold serve early in the set, though each did. With Pegula serving at 3-4, though, she was broken at love, and then Gauff held to even the match by taking set two 6-3. She had straightened out her serve issues, at least temporarily.
To begin the third set, Pegula held and then had a break point in the next game, but Gauff managed to hold. One might have wondered if the missed opportunity would come back to haunt Pegula. This was especially true as Gauff got the break in the next game, then held, and was suddenly leading 3-1 in the final set.
Even with her early serve issues, Gauff had a sound strategy, and a perfect one for grass courts. She came to the net nearly twice as often as Jessica Pegula, forcing her fellow American to try to beat her with lobs or passing shots. Stunningly, Pegula was with Gauff serving at 2-3, and Pegula was able to get the break to get the set back to even.
As often happens in a Gauff match, though, she was able to get the break right back, this time at love. She led 4-3 and simply needed to keep holding and not beat herself by reverting to double faults again. She wouldn't even need to do that, though. She would get another break of Pegula and would take the third set 6-3.
Coco Gauff will next play the winner of the quarterfinal match between Naomi Osaka and Karolina Muchova in the Wimbledon semifinals. Osaka was playing well entering the quarterfinal match but had never won the grass-court major. Muchova's best previous result in London was reaching the quarterfinals twice, in 2019 and then again in 2021. She hadn't made it out of the first round since 2022.
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