TEENAGE SENSATION COCO Gauff’s Wimbledon fairytale came to an end on Monday afternoon, as she lost to Romania’s former world number one Simona Halep 6-3, 6-3 in the last 16.
The 15-year-old American saved three match points, but was simply out-played by her more experienced opponent on Court One.
Halep, who is into the quarter-finals for the third time, plays Zhang Shuai for a place in the last four on Tuesday.
Gauff’s cause was not helped by appearing to have suffered an abdomen strain during the second set which entailed the trainer and doctor to attend to her whilst her glum-looking parents — father Corey who coached her initially and mum Candi — looked on from the players’ box.
Whilst on Friday Gauff had fought back against Polona Hercog from a set down and saved two match points, 2018 French Open champion Halep is used to this level and never gave her opponent a glimmer of a hope as she closed out the match after breaking the American to lead 4-2.
“I’m really happy that I can play again in the quarter-finals,” said Halep, who was also in the last eight in 2016 and 2017.
“I enjoyed a lot the crowd, the energy today, I felt it really well.
“I’m happy that I could play my best tennis I’m not comparing myself with last year. Last year was the best yet,” added the 27-year-old.
However, Gauff, who was playing her seventh match in a fortnight having come through qualifying, takes her leave having also improved her ranking markedly from 313 and announced herself as a future Grand Slam contender.
Meanwhile, Serena Williams breezed into the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro.
Previous form offered little indication that Williams’ pursuit of a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title would be knocked off course by Suarez Navarro, who had failed to win a set in their six previous meetings.
This proved a similarly forlorn assignment for the 30th seed, despite some good moments in the middle of each set as errors flowed from her esteemed opponent’s racquet more frequently than might have been expected.
Williams will face Alison Riske in the quarter-finals after her compatriot downed world number one Ashleigh Barty via a gruelling 96-minute encounter on Court Two.
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