By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Photo credit: Robert Prange/Getty
Wimbledon—The grass game remains a slippery slope for Coco Gauff.
Flat-hitting Dayana Yastremska toppled reigning Roland Garros champion Gauff 7-6(3), 6-1 sending the world No. 2 crashing out of her Wimbledon opener on Tuesday.
It’s Gauff’s second first-round exit at The Championships in the last three years and reduced her to tears in the locker room and in her post-match press conference..
Two years ago, Gauff lost to former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in her Wimbledon opener.
The two-time Grand Slam champion made ignominious history with Tuesday’s exit. Gauff is the first reigning Roland Garros champion since Francesca Schiavone in 2010 to lose in the Wimbledon first round. Gauff joined Schiavone and Justine Henin, who fell to Eleni Daniilidou at the 2005 Wimbledon, as just the third French Open title holder to fall in Wimbledon’s first round.
So what’s the issue and how can Gauff, who has yet to surpass the Wimbledon round of 16, improve her grass game?
Obviously, Gauff’s extreme western forehand grip makes it difficult for her to dig out low balls on lawn. That was apparent against the flat-hitting Yastremska, who belted 10 more winners in the match and was more assertive playing first-strike tennis.
Afterward, Gauff pointed to two primary areas of improvement she must make on grass:
1. Sharper Serving
2. Asserting her aggression more and beat opponents to the punch on lawn.
Gauff, who served effectively in her Roland Garros run, served just 45 percent, won only 44 percent of second-serve points and struck just 6 winners in a 79-minute loss to Yastremska.
Grass success starts with her serve, Gauff said, because when she’s landing it she can play off the front foot and be less reactive.
“Definitely serving better. I mean, when I can serve well, and some games I did, it’s definitely an added threat. I think I didn’t serve that well,” Gauff said. “Yeah, I mean, obviously I have to be able to counter that and also be as aggressive too as she is at times.”
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The challenge for Gauff, who has reached the Roland Garros final in two of the last four years, is her clay success limits her transition time to grass. That makes modifying her game style for grass tough because she’s playing longer on clay. Another challenge is under pressure, Gauff tends to rely on her legs and defensive skills, which works well on clay but isn’t a winning grass formula.
“I think it’s just changing my playing style a little bit, which is difficult, ’cause for me it’s like I approach clay and I play this one way for however long clay season is, six to eight weeks, or I don’t know,” Gauff said. “Then I feel like when I go on hard, I don’t have to change as much, but I still have to adjust it a little bit.”
Time is on the 21-year-old Gauff’s side and she has shown problem-solving skills on hard court and clay. The question is: Can Gauff play a more assertive style on grass without modifying her extreme forehand grip?
Another option for Gauff, who has been a strong doubles player, is to try to impose her net skills more often. In yesterday’s loss, Gauff won three of five trips to net.
Moving forward, Gauff may well want to try to apply her net game to grass. However that also requires playing closer to the baseline, which can be a challenge for Gauff given her more expansive backswing on the forehand side.
A disconsolate Gauff shed tears at the end of her post-match presser, but said she’ll try to use her time off to recalibrate for the US Open.
“I feel like I could have been a little bit better in those tough tiebreaker moments, especially after Roland Garros, where I felt like I learned a lot in those tiebreakers,” Gauff said. “Yeah, I mean, obviously I’m not going to dwell on this too long because I want to do well at US Open.
“Maybe losing here first round isn’t the worst thing in the world because I have time to reset. Yeah, definitely sucks.”
