Coco Gauff’s run at Wimbledon now feels like a real breakthrough on grass. After a two-year wait for a grass-court win, the American has beaten Jessica Pegula to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time, turning a surface that had become her weakest recent setting into a route back into the biggest rounds.
That matters because Wimbledon had been the one Grand Slam where Gauff had not previously gone beyond the quarterfinals. It also came after a difficult recent pattern on grass, including losses in Berlin and an early exit at Wimbledon last year. For a player who has often looked more natural on the quicker hard courts, this is the sort of result that changes the mood around a tournament.
From early exit to semifinal run
The contrast with the recent record is striking. Last year, Gauff lost her first warm-up match at the Berlin Tennis Open and then fell in the first round at Wimbledon. Two weeks before this year’s tournament, she lost another opening match on grass in Berlin. So to now be into the semifinals after beating Belinda Bencic and Jessica Pegula gives this run a very different feel.
Her first-round victory over Tamara Korpatsch on Monday, a 6-2, 6-1 win in less than an hour, was the first sign that the grass story might be changing. It was also her first grass-court win in two years, ending a 24-month wait and suggesting that the surface could finally be becoming less of a problem.
Confidence on the surface
Gauff has been frank about the challenge. “I don’t regret the past, I just learn from it,” she said, a line that fits the way this Wimbledon campaign has unfolded. Rather than hiding from the setbacks, she has used them as part of the rebuild.
She has also made clear where the shift has to come from. “I definitely think I have the ability to play on it. I think it’s more about the confidence,” Gauff said. That is the key point here: the issue was never only technical, but whether she could trust her game on a surface that had repeatedly exposed her.
Why this run matters now
Gauff’s grass-court record has not suddenly turned into a career strength, but this is still a meaningful step. A player who once needed to prove she could handle Wimbledon has now done more than survive the opening rounds. She has beaten Belinda Bencic and Jessica Pegula and moved into the semifinals, which is a proper statement rather than a one-off result.
She remains one of the most interesting players in the draw because her level can still rise quickly when confidence follows her around the court. If this run is the start of a better relationship with grass, Wimbledon may end up being the place where that change became visible.
