Coco Gauff was 15 when she announced herself as a future Wimbledon champion, coming through qualifying, beating five-time winner Venus Williams and reaching the fourth round.
That was seven years ago. Until this week, while she has won Grand Slams titles in Paris and New York, the fourth round remained her high-water mark in London.
On Tuesday (local time) she finally booked a semifinal place, defeating fourth-seed Jessica Pegula 4-6 6-3 6-3 to become the highest-ranked woman left in the draw.
And with Naomi Osaka losing to ninth seed Karolina Muchova 7-6(4) 6-4, Gauff is now the only player left in the women’s singles field to have won a major title.
Muchova is her next opponent, with the Czech emulating Gauff in becoming a Wimbledon semifinalist for the first time.
Muchova and Gauff have now reached the semifinal stage at all four Grand Slam events, completing their sets within hours of each other at the All England Club.
It ensures the latest showdown in the Gauff-Muchova canon, with the two all-court stars having met several times on the game’s biggest stages.
Most notably they clashed in the 2023 US Open semifinals, while also meeting in WTA 1000 finals in Cincinnati and Beijing. In 2026, they played in the Australian Open fourth round, and Miami semifinals.
Muchova finally scored her first win over the American star in seven attempts in the Stuttgart quarterfinals in April.
This will be their first meeting on grass, a surface on which Muchova – and Czechs in general – have excelled, a phenomenon we explored in our Substack Front Row with the AO.
SUBSTACK: Why Czech players thrive on grass
Seventh seed Gauff began badly on Centre Court on another baking hot day in south west London. From 40-0 up in the opening game she lost the next five points, including a pair of double-faults.
After breaking back in the sixth game, Gauff was immediately broken to love with two more double-faults.
Another double-fault followed at the start of the second set but Gauff recovered to hold and then her serve began to fire. Pegula, on her Centre Court debut, was the one to crack and it went to a decider.
Gauff broke early, Pegula responded, but Gauff broke again to clinch victory.
"Honestly, it's pretty insane, considering I hadn't won a match on grass in two years before this tournament," Gauff said during her on-court interview.
She then added later: "It feels really special considering the results I've had of late and just especially on this surface. I'm able to relax a bit because, I feel regardless of how the rest of this tournament goes, I really think I've found a bit of a breakthrough on grass.
"In the past there's commentary on my game, how maybe it doesn't mesh with this surface, things like that. I think just trusting myself, trusting that my groundstrokes are good enough to be with anyone on this surface.
"Obviously I'm not satisfied. I want to go all the way."
On No.1 Court, where Osaka last week beat Australia's Daria Kasatkina, the four-time Grand Slam winner appeared to have serious intent when she reduced her walk-on outfit to just the train.
But after squandering a break chance at 5-5 she made too many errors in the tiebreak and went a set down.
The 14th seed failed to exert much pressure on Muchova's serve in the second set and was broken in the ninth game thanks to two double faults and a wild volley.
"I played three times on this court and it was 0-3," Muchova said. "I had a not good relationship with this court, but I am super happy we finally made it and I got the win."
After playing in Berlin and then winning the title in Bad Homburg, Muchova is enjoying a nine-match winning streak on grass.
"I played two tournaments before Wimbledon. I think it helped me to get the matches and get that experience from the matches. I think I feel the most comfortable definitely on the grass now," Muchova said.
"[Coco] is just, like, great athlete overall. One of the best in the world, in our sport. It was tough to play against her. I'm happy we have 0-0 [record] on the grass. That's a bit better balance for me there.
"She gives you a lot of balls back. She has a lot of weapons. She is big fighter, which as well gives a lot of things to her game to make it awkward for me."
Wednesday's women's quarterfinals feature Marta Kostyuk against Jasmine Paolini, and Linda Noskova playing Elise Mertens.
Whoever comes through will be a debutant winner and if it is Muchova or Noskova they will be the third Czech Wimbledon winner in four years after Marketa Vondrousova (2023) and Barbora Krejcikova (2024).
(Additional reporting by Tennis Australia)