(July 3, 2024) No. 2 Coco Gauff and No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz showed no mercy to their opponents on Wednesday at The Championships, Wimbledon.
The 20-year-old American Gauff demolished qualifier Anca Todoni 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the third round at the All England Club. Just a year ago, Gauff lost in the first round at Wimbledon, this year she is one of the favorites,
“This is the court where I first started here at Wimbledon. Court 1 is always a special place for me to play on,” she said in her on-court interview.
“Overall, I just learned about life a lot,” she said reflecting on last year’s early ouster.
“I just realized that, yes, what I do I’m very passionate about, but it’s not ever that serious and sometimes the world can make you feel like there’s so much pressure, there’s so much expectation,” she said. “At the end of the (day), it’s a game. It’s sport.”
Five years ago at 15, she beat one of her idols, Venus Williams in the first round of Wimbledon.
Defending champion Alcaraz rallied from 6-5 down in the first set to beat Aleksander Vukic 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-2. This sets up a third-round meeting with American No. 29 Frances Tiafoe after the American eliminated Borna Coric 7-6 (5), 6-1, 6-3.
In his on-court interview, Alcaraz was told that Tiafoe stated that he was “coming after you. The 21-year-old Spaniard, responded: “I’m going for him.” The two met in the semifinals of the 2022 US Open.
“We played a really good match in the US Open,” Alcaraz said.
In other men’s matches played on Wednesday, and all-Italian battle had No. 1 Jannik Sinner best 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini in four sets.
A few seeds on the men’s side lost on Wednesday, they included No. 8 Casper Ruud, No. 17 Felix Auger-Aliassime, No. 26 Francisco Cerundolo, No. 27 Tallon Griekspoor and No. 32 Zhizeng Zhang.
Former No. 1 Naomi Osaka, on the road to a comeback after having a baby a year ago lost No. 19 seeded Emma Navarro of the United States in straight sets in the second round.
An upset on the ladies’ side of the draw included No. 25 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
