No. 2-ranked Coco Gauff was noticeably off her sport in her surprising first-round loss at Wimbledon on Tuesday, July 1, to unseeded Dayana Yastremska.
Gauff, 21, misplaced 7-6 (3), 6-1, and completed with 29 unforced errors and 9 double-faults. After the match, she opened up about what went improper, saying her French Open win final month got here with a fast turnaround and left her feeling drained.
“I really feel like mentally I used to be just a little bit overwhelmed with all the pieces that got here afterwards,” she stated, “so I didn’t really feel like I had sufficient time to have fun and in addition get again into it.”
Such candor is nothing new from Gauff. She has lengthy been open about her psychological well being as the subject has turn out to be more and more outstanding amongst athletes in particular person sports activities. Within the lead-up to Wimbledon in 2024, she shared the journey she went by within the earlier yr alone.
“I want a-year-ago-me might see me now. I used to be actually in a darkish place,” she stated on the time. “However I believe I’ve grown loads. I’m glad I used that second to try to get higher. The subsequent individual of the season was the perfect I’ve ever had. That simply exhibits dangerous moments don’t final endlessly.”
Gauff has been within the public eye since she was a youngster, making her WTA debut at age 15. She defined how the pressures of being a younger phenom had an have an effect on on her psychological well being, at the same time as she racked up event wins and climbed the world rankings.
“All through my life, I used to be at all times the youngest to do issues, which added hype that I didn’t need,” she wrote in a 2020 put up for Behind The Racquet. “It added this stress that I wanted to do effectively quick. Proper earlier than Wimbledon, going again to round 2017/18, I used to be struggling to determine if this was actually what I needed. I at all times had the outcomes, in order that wasn’t the difficulty. I simply discovered myself not having fun with what I cherished.”
“I spotted I wanted to start out taking part in for myself and never different individuals. For a couple of yr, I used to be actually depressed,” she continued. “That was the hardest yr for me to date.”
Gauff added that she thought-about taking a yr off from tennis to concentrate on her life exterior of sports activities.
“Selecting to not clearly was the appropriate selection, however I used to be near not getting into that course. I used to be simply misplaced,” she wrote. “I used to be confused and overthinking if this was what I needed or what others did. It took many moments sitting, pondering and crying. I got here out of it stronger and understanding myself higher than ever.”
