Under a closed roof, on No. 1 Court at Wimbledon, American Coco Gauff, the second seed, defeated Romanian qualifier Anca Todoni 6-2, 6-1 to reach the third round.
This was the same court where she beat Venus Williams back in 2019 when she was just fifteen years old making her Wimbledon debut.
Gauff said: “This is the court where I first started here at Wimbledon, so Court 1 is always a special place for me to play on.”
No. 1 Court has a capacity of 12,300 , and it felt very full, with a murmuring hum of crowd noise amplified by the roof.
As I looked around at the various shades of green of the stadium and the green pristine grass, my eyes finally settled a few rows in front of me.
There I saw Roger Federer’s parents, Robert (wearing a blue RF Uniqlo cap) and Lynette, with his twin sons Leo and Lenny.
(Photo credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)
I felt a thrill of excitement, seeing the family of the most beautiful player that I’ve ever seen play.
Every so often, I heard one of the boys say: “Let’s go, Coco!” and “Go, Coco, you got this!”
Coco definitely had this.
In her post-match press conference, Gauff said: “Yeah, I felt good out there. It was a lot slower today with just the conditions. But overall, I still felt good.
“I do think I can be too critical because 2 and 1 is clean. I think it’s just like moments, maybe I like missed some shots that I normally would make. Also, that’s tennis, you’re always going to miss some shots that you normally would make. I am trying to focus on straight sets and winning cleaner.
“Obviously today I can’t be too critical. I think on the court I was getting a little bit more frustrated than normal, considering the scoreline.”
When asked what she thought she was doing better, Gauff said: “I think I’m just going for it more and accepting the misses. I think today I had a really low first-serve percentage in the first set and maybe in the second it got higher.
“I think when I go for it overall it’s more winning for me on my serve. I think I just have a lot of confidence in my return game that makes the serving a lot easier.
“I know I can get the power when I need to. I think I’m just trying to focus on continuing that and not losing confidence in it. Obviously when you’re making more second serves on the court, it is overall easier to hold serve.”
Gauff’s biggest serve today was 123 mph.
When asked if she checks her serve speed, Gauff said: “Yeah, I do check the serve speed sometimes in the match because I try to make sure I go for it. Sometimes unconsciously when you’re tight, maybe you try to just get the serve in. There are times where I’ll check. If I miss, even if I miss and the serve is like 119 or 118 and up, I’m like okay, that’s good. I hate to miss when it’s slower.
“I want to get to 130. I think the fastest I’ve gotten is 128.
“Do I have a 130 in me? I don’t know. Maybe if I was a little bit taller. I can get definitely 130. Now, if it goes in, I don’t know (smiling).”
