Key Points
- Coco Gauff beat No. 11 Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach her first Wimbledon quarterfinal.
- She faces fellow American and close friend Jessica Pegula, the No. 4 seed, next.
- The top three women's seeds — Sabalenka, Swiatek, and Rybakina — were all eliminated before the quarters.
- Grass has long been Gauff's weakest surface; this is her deepest run at the All England Club.
Coco Gauff reached her first Wimbledon quarterfinal on Sunday, recovering from a set down to beat No. 11 seed Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. The 22-year-old American, seeded seventh, next faces close friend and fellow American Jessica Pegula, the No. 4 seed, with a semifinal place on the line.
Gauff arrived at the All England Club carrying two Grand Slam titles — the 2023 US Open and the 2025 French Open — but grass had stubbornly remained her weakest surface; she had never been past the fourth round here. After dropping the opening set to Bencic, she steadied, broke the Swiss repeatedly, and closed out the last two sets to end that ceiling.
She advances into a draw that has come apart at the top. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka was bounced in the fourth round, when Naomi Osaka overpowered her 6-2, 7-6 to reach her own first Wimbledon quarterfinal. Defending champion and No. 3 seed Iga Swiatek had already gone out earlier in the week, when No. 29 seed Alexandra Eala dethroned her, and No. 2 Elena Rybakina fell to Elise Mertens. All three of the tournament's top seeds are out, leaving Gauff and Pegula as the highest seeds remaining in the bottom half.
That collapse reframes the back half of this Championships. With the game's most decorated grass-court favorites gone, the tournament has swung open toward exactly the player the sport's commercial machine is already built around: Gauff is the highest-earning athlete in women's tennis, a fixture at Wimbledon whose off-court presence this fortnight included a Miu Miu x New Balance collection built for her Centre Court appearances. An all-American quarterfinal against Pegula, with a semifinal berth at stake, is the kind of moment that rewards a first deep run here — and it lands with the draw wide open in front of her.
Gauff would ride that wide-open draw all the way to the title match, where Karolína Muchová beat her in the Wimbledon women's final.
Source: CBS Sports.
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