Coco Gauff’s Wimbledon shock only proves the greatness of Alcaraz and Djokovic ...Middle East

WIMBLEDON — Coco Gauff is out of Wimbledon before the tournament has even really got into its stride, the No 2 seed and newly crowned French Open champion drummed out in just 78 minutes.

It topped off a miserably brief grass court season for the 21-year-old, who has not even won a set in her two matches played, beaten by Wang Xinyu 6-3, 6-3 in Berlin and then Dayana Yastremska 7-6, 6-1 at SW19.

Gauff became only the third woman in Open era history to win Roland Garros and then lose in the first round of Wimbledon, but acknowledged her inability to transition, physically and psychologically, had cost her.

"It's the win of her career." No.1 Court is stunned as Dayana Yastremska defeats No.2 seed Coco Gauff 7-6(3), 6-1 #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/pZYylWHcs8

“Mentally I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came afterwards [winning the French Open], so I didn’t feel like I had enough time to celebrate and also get back into it,” Gauff said.

“I maybe could have used more matches. It’s like finding the puzzle.”

A tricky decision to make

The No 2 seed Gauff said she regretted playing Berlin two weeks ago, having only had a few days’ practice on grass before and might have been better taking a more concerted training block.

Could she have played last week in Bad Homburg or Eastbourne instead? Who knows if it would have helped. Both their champions also lost in the first round of Wimbledon.

“If you go deep in Roland Garros, you’re debating on do I rush and play that week, or do I take time and play the week before [Wimbledon]? It’s a tricky thing,” Gauff added.

In fact in the 57 years of Open era history, only 11 players have managed to win both Roland Garros and Wimbledon in the same year, and every single one of them is considered a great.

The 12 players to have won the “Channel Slam”

“It seems like Carlos and Novak are the ones to figure it out, and even he had a tough first-round match,” Gauff said, referring to Alcaraz’s five-setter against Fabio Fognini.

“I really just think it’s that in this turnaround, I think this slam out of all of them is the most prone to have upsets because of how quick the turnaround is from clay.

“It’s definitely hard. Obviously if you can do this, you’re great. I would love to one day be able to accomplish that.”

Of the 11 to have done it, only two remain active and as Gauff well knows that is Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.

Neither did it the same way: Djokovic was 34 when he finally managed it and his only competitive preparation for Wimbledon was playing doubles with Carlos Gomez-Herrera, now a member of his backroom staff, in Mallorca; last year Alcaraz, who was only 21, spent a boozy few days in Ibiza before playing two matches at Queen’s.

Alcaraz was made to work hard by Fabio Fognini in his Wimbledon opener (Photo: PA)

For both, it worked, unusual though it looked from the outside. And that is a lesson Gauff can learn from them. Doing the “Channel Slam” is a puzzle, and one that needs a deeply personal solution. Both Alcaraz and Djokovic learned what worked for them, despite what everyone else said. Greats back there decisions, and Gauff’s greatness depends on a similar approach.

And no one doubts she can be great. At just 21, she has already conquered New York and just a few weeks ago Paris, winning a grand slam title in each famous city. But London still eludes her.

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It’s strange to say given that it was here that she took like a duck to water to grand slam tennis, stunning her childhood hero Venus Williams on Wimbledon debut in 2019 having come through qualifying. She reached the fourth round that year, a result she matched 12 months ago, but one she has never bettered. This has turned out to be her weakest slam.

And it is unfortunate for Gauff that it follows so quickly on the heels of arguably her strongest – she has an 84 per cent win rate at Roland Garros that is seven points higher than even her US Open record.

On the women’s side, only one woman has managed the double in the 21st century, the great Serena Williams. When she did it for the second time in 2015, she did not rush from Paris to London. She went back to Florida, and tried to destress.

“I gave myself about a week just to get myself back together, physically more than anything,” said Williams ahead of Wimbledon in 2015.

“Then I started slowly just getting back into it, getting back into it. Mentally I was always thinking about, ‘Gosh, Wimbledon’s around the corner’. I’m sitting here like, ‘Wasn’t I just in France?’.

“It kind of comes fast.”

It does. But Serena adapted. The greats do. So will Coco.

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