WIMBLEDON, England — Coco Gauff is “enjoying her journey” at Wimbledon, especially after an easy win in the third round, while Naomi Osaka will have to wait another year after suffering an early exit following her return to the Grand Slam event.
On Wednesday, Gauff reached the third round at the All England Club by beating qualifier Anca Todoni 6-2, 6-1 on No. 1 Court.
The court is a special place for Gauff, as it was where she defeated Venus Williams in 2019, when Gauff made her Wimbledon debut at the age of 15.
“This is the same court where I first started playing at Wimbledon. Court 1 has always been a special place for me to play,” the 20-year-old Gauff said in an on-court interview.
The win allows No. 2 seed Gauff to move a step closer to last year’s first-round exit.
“Overall, I’ve learned a lot about life,” the US Open champion said when asked about overcoming a three-set loss to Sofia Kenin. “I just realized that, yes, I’m very passionate about what I do, but it’s never that serious and sometimes the world can make you feel like there’s a lot of pressure, a lot of expectations. (At the end of the day), it’s a game. It’s a sport.”
She later said: “I tend to be overly critical of myself. I say, ‘Well, I should take a step back, be patient and enjoy the journey.'”
Gauff slipped and fell twice on a slippery court during the 1 hour and 6 minute match and muttered to herself against an opponent ranked 140 below her. She also committed 16 unforced errors in the short match and landed just 43% of her first serves.
“I feel like I could have played better on a few occasions, but overall I’m happy to have reached the third round,” Gauff said.
“That’s tennis,” she said afterwards. “You always miss a few shots that you normally would. I’m trying to focus on straight sets and getting clean wins.”
Todoni, a 19-year-old Romanian making her Grand Slam debut, made 23 unforced errors and failed to find her range against the speedy American before the player sealed the match with a drop shot that Todoni could only send wide.
Five years ago, Gauff defeated five-time Wimbledon champion Williams 6-4, 6-4 in the first round and eventually reached the last 16, her first time at a Grand Slam.
The draw has opened for Gauff after Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka and former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka withdrew on day one.
Gauff will next face British qualifier Sonne Carthel, who beat France’s Clara Burel 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
“It’s going to be a tough match,” Carthol said on court after the match. “It’s going to be a fun match, and I hope I can make the British crowd proud.”
Gauff said: “The British team will definitely be tough to face, especially on grass. I think they always perform very well, but especially in this environment.”
Osaka, meanwhile, will have to wait at least 12 months after her return to Wimbledon was halted in the second round when she was beaten 6-4, 6-1 by American Emma Navarro in a match that luckily only lasted 58 minutes.
The four-time Grand Slam champion and former world number one returned to the tour in January after a 15-month maternity leave and has not competed at Wimbledon since 2019.
After defeating world number one Iga Swiatek at the French Open and wasting a match point before losing in the second round, Osaka made four errors that allowed Navarro to break her serve in the seventh game of the first set, and the game went downhill quickly after that.
“At the beginning it felt like we were changing the game, but I don’t know why, (but) I didn’t have full confidence in myself. I didn’t feel like I was playing that well,” Osaka said. “I think those doubts started to creep into my game as well.”
Navarro, who won the 2021 NCAA singles title for the University of Virginia and is ranked 19th in grass-court Grand Slam tournaments, used clean tennis to advance: just five unforced errors compared to 16 winners; zero break points faced; 4-in-4 success rate at the net.
“It’s an environment that could easily overwhelm me or any player, and I spent a lot of time mentally preparing myself for the emotions and nerves I was going to feel,” Navarro said. “Then once I got there, I really felt at home.”
British wildcard Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, took a comfortable 5-0 lead with a 6-1, 6-2 win against Belgium’s Elise Mertens. This is the first time Raducanu has reached the third round of a Grand Slam since winning the title at Flushing Meadows.
“I feel like I’m playing really good tennis. I’m really happy with the improvements I’ve made,” Raducanu said on court. “I knew all the hard work I’ve been doing this year would come out in a big way. I’m just so happy that I’m able to reap some rewards at Wimbledon.”
In other results, No. 11 Danielle Collins completed her first-round match — a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win over Clara Tauson after the match was suspended Tuesday night when the second set was tied at 4-4.
No. 20 Beatriz Haddad Maia defeated Magdalena Frech 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the third round.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
