Since 1877, Wimbledon has been one of the most esteemed tennis events in the world, filled with the triumphs and losses of our favorite tennis players. Though this year, some of the most triumphed female players have unfortunately fallen.
No.1 ranked Iga Swiatek, the French Open champion and No. 11 ranked Coco Gauff, the youngest female player ranked in the top 100, have both lost early in the competition.
Swiatek was surprisingly not as devasted at her loss than many have expected, especially after ending her record-breaking winning streak of 37 matches. When asked of her opponent, Alize Cornet of France, Swiatek admitted, “As a solid player, she used [the confusion] pretty well,” and laughed at herself, which is always a good sign of good sportsmanship.
Cornet, at a loss of words, responded to her victory by saying, “I mean, what she’s done this year is out of this world, and I can’t believe I’m the one that actually broke the streak.” Cornet also defeated No. 1 Serena Williams in the third round of Wimbledon 2014, reached her first major quarterfinal at the 2022 Australian Open, and took place in the third round at the French. When asked of her upcoming opponent in the fourth round, (Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia, No. 44, seven seeds below Cornet’s No. 37) Cornet said, “No, really, please, I just beat the world number one. I want to enjoy for a few hours, not knowing what’s next, not envisioning and be like, I’m going to play her, blah, blah, blah. I don’t want to know. Until tomorrow I’m not going to try to be on the social media because for sure I will find out.”
Gauff, who at age 15 reached the fourth round of Wimbledon 2019, focused more on herself than her victor, who in this case was New Jersey-born Floridian Amanda Anisimova. “I think I’ve grown a lot in my mentality over this trip,” the 18-year-old said. “Well, I mean, the start of the clay season there were matches, there was my first match of the clay season, I was up 4-0 and lost the set, kind of lost the match really because of mentality. Today I was up 3-0 and went down a break. I was able to somehow find a way to win that set (from 4-1 down in the tiebreaker). For me, that just shows improvement in that aspect.”
After the match, Gauff was surrounded by admirers, and she described how they felt nervous meeting her. Her only response was, “Just chill out. Let’s have a conversation.”
Although our female tennis champions have fallen, who knows where they’ll shine next? Whether it’s the approaching U.S. Open, or even next year’s Wimbledon, we know these professionals are putting effort into their work that will one day bring them back to victory.
Link:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656877653411x228206337057307740/Iga%20Swiatek%2C%20Coco%20Gauff%20out%20at%20Wimbledon%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
No.1 ranked Iga Swiatek, the French Open champion and No. 11 ranked Coco Gauff, the youngest female player ranked in the top 100, have both lost early in the competition.
Swiatek was surprisingly not as devasted at her loss than many have expected, especially after ending her record-breaking winning streak of 37 matches. When asked of her opponent, Alize Cornet of France, Swiatek admitted, “As a solid player, she used [the confusion] pretty well,” and laughed at herself, which is always a good sign of good sportsmanship.
Cornet, at a loss of words, responded to her victory by saying, “I mean, what she’s done this year is out of this world, and I can’t believe I’m the one that actually broke the streak.” Cornet also defeated No. 1 Serena Williams in the third round of Wimbledon 2014, reached her first major quarterfinal at the 2022 Australian Open, and took place in the third round at the French. When asked of her upcoming opponent in the fourth round, (Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia, No. 44, seven seeds below Cornet’s No. 37) Cornet said, “No, really, please, I just beat the world number one. I want to enjoy for a few hours, not knowing what’s next, not envisioning and be like, I’m going to play her, blah, blah, blah. I don’t want to know. Until tomorrow I’m not going to try to be on the social media because for sure I will find out.”
Gauff, who at age 15 reached the fourth round of Wimbledon 2019, focused more on herself than her victor, who in this case was New Jersey-born Floridian Amanda Anisimova. “I think I’ve grown a lot in my mentality over this trip,” the 18-year-old said. “Well, I mean, the start of the clay season there were matches, there was my first match of the clay season, I was up 4-0 and lost the set, kind of lost the match really because of mentality. Today I was up 3-0 and went down a break. I was able to somehow find a way to win that set (from 4-1 down in the tiebreaker). For me, that just shows improvement in that aspect.”
After the match, Gauff was surrounded by admirers, and she described how they felt nervous meeting her. Her only response was, “Just chill out. Let’s have a conversation.”
Although our female tennis champions have fallen, who knows where they’ll shine next? Whether it’s the approaching U.S. Open, or even next year’s Wimbledon, we know these professionals are putting effort into their work that will one day bring them back to victory.
Link:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1656877653411x228206337057307740/Iga%20Swiatek%2C%20Coco%20Gauff%20out%20at%20Wimbledon%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
