Gauff becomes youngest player since 2007 to reach all four major semifinals
Coco Gauff made her first Wimbledon semifinal on Tuesday, and in doing so made some history.
She has now made the semifinals at all four Grand Slams, and at 22 is the youngest WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz player to accomplish that feat since Maria Sharapova in 2007. (Sharapova was just 20 when she made the French Open semis that year to complete the quartet.)
A former US Open and French Open champion, Gauff made the semifinals at the Australian Open in 2024.
Prior to the start of this tournament, she had never been past the fourth round in six Wimbledon appearances.
The run to the final four has been anything but easy for the World No. 7. She's now played four consecutive three-setters, the last two of which she came from a set down to win.
After beating Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals, she looked at her box and mouthed, "Oh my god, how?"
"I didn't think this would be the year, honestly, to be fair," Gauff told reporters after the match. "I think maybe the biggest thing is the athletic ability that I have. I am a good mover. I think, because of that, it translates to all surfaces. That's why I'm maybe having good results so far on all of them."
Though she's still so young, Gauff acknowledged in her on-court interview that she's starting to feel like a tour veteran. It was the first time, she said, that she didn't feel the nerves playing on Centre Court.
And though Wimbledon has traditionally been Gauff's least successful major, it was here that she had her first real breakthrough. In her Grand Slam main-draw debut in 2019, a 15-year-old Gauff came through qualifying and reached the fourth round, stunning Venus Williams in the process.
"I've been here since [I was] 15," she said, "so I've had a lot more opportunities to play these tournaments than other people. It just gives me more chances, I guess, of success. So I think that's also the main thing, having that experience early on of making a second week of a Slam, having that belief.
"At 15, I was entering almost every Slam, expecting that I can make it to the quarters. I think that was also a big thing."
Gauff also became the seventh active player to complete the Grand Slam semifinal set, joining Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Karolina Pliskova, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
Just hours later, Karolina Muchova became the eighth after she defeated Naomi Osaka 7-6 (4), 6-4 to reach the Wimbledon semifinals.
Gauff and Muchova will play on Thursday for a spot in the final. Gauff has won six of their seven career meetings, though Muchova won their most recent match, a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win in the Stuttgart quarterfinals in April. This will be their first match on grass.
