WIMBLEDON, England — Things weren’t going well for Coco Gauff against Emma Navarro on Centre Court, not well at all, and she kept looking toward her guest box for help from her coaches. One of them, Brad Gilbert, stood and gestured, and they talked back and forth, but nothing came out.
Gauff has yet to advance past the fourth round at Wimbledon, and she exited at that stage once again on Sunday, beaten 6-4, 6-3 by Navarro, an American.
“We had a game plan, and I felt it wasn’t working. I don’t always ask the box for advice, but today there was a moment when I felt I didn’t have a solution,” said Gauff, the defending US Open champion and the No. 2 seed at the All England Club. “Mentally it was a lot going on, and I felt I needed more direction.”
It was the latest in a series of top women withdrawing from the Wimbledon bracket this year: No. 1 Iga Swiatek lost on Saturday, No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka withdrew with a shoulder injury before playing a match and No. 6 Marketa Vondrousova lost in the first round.
Only two of the 10 highest-seeded women remain: 2022 champion Elena Rybakina, who is seeded No. 4, and recent French Open runner-up Jasmine Paolini, who is seeded No. 7 and will now face Navarro. Rybakina will play her fourth-round match on Monday, while Paolini advances on Sunday after Madison Keys pulled out because of an injury.
Navarro showed what type of tennis she is capable of playing in the second round, when she defeated four-time major champion Naomi Osaka.
“I don’t have a lot of words to say,” said Navarro, 23, the 19th seed who grew up in South Carolina and won an NCAA championship for Virginia.
“I played very aggressively. Coco is definitely an amazing player. I have a lot of respect for her and what she has done at such a young age is really amazing. I knew she wasn’t going to make it easy for me tonight,” said Navarro, who reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. “But I wanted to play aggressively and play against her game and I think I was able to do that.”
In addition to winning the trophy in New York last September, Gauff, 20, from Florida, was runner-up at the French Open and reached the semifinals of the Australian Open.
And while her first major success came at the All England Club at the age of 15, when she became the youngest qualifier in the tournament’s history and defeated Venus Williams in the first round on her way to the fourth round, Gauff never bettered that result.
She also exited in the fourth round in her next appearance in 2021, then lost in the third round in 2022 and in the first round a year ago.
On Sunday, Gauff kept making mistakes and eventually made more than twice as many unforced errors, 25, as she did as the winner, 12. Her biggest problem was the shot that her opponents knew was Gauff’s weakness: the forehand.
Navarro kept hitting that side and it worked.
Gauff made 16 unforced errors on her forehand and another 16 forced errors, allowing Navarro to win 32 of her 61 total points.
“When players play well I have the ability to raise my level, and I feel like I didn’t do that today,” Gauff said.
He said that when he had asked his coaches for help mid-match in the past, “they usually gave me something”, but added: “Today, I don’t think we were all in agreement.”
“It’s nobody else’s fault but mine. I’m the player I am,” Gauff said.
