Amid a somewhat challenging season, American star Coco Gauff is finding an unlikely reprieve on grass – the surface she has most struggled to master.
It was on the lawns of Wimbledon where she tapped into her famed fighting spirit on Wednesday, coming through a gripping three-set contest with Solana Sierra.
Trailing 5-3 in the third set, and 7-4 in the match tiebreak, Gauff secured a 6-3 3-6 7-6[10-7] win over the Argentine – who reached the fourth round last year – to keep her campaign alive.
“I'm just trying to take it one point at a time. Honestly, Roland Garros I was two points away from winning at one point,” said Gauff, whose third-round run at Wimbledon matches what she achieved just a few weeks ago in Paris on clay, her preferred surface.
“I think sometimes I feel like I have a bit of like impostor syndrome. I've talked about this before. Maybe having my success, but sometimes forgetting about it, or maybe thinking I almost don't deserve it a little bit.
“I think I just have to remind myself that, yes, the girl I'm playing is tough… But I also have to remember that they're probably thinking the same thing about me.”
That push-pull for Gauff – remembering her highs instead of focusing on lower moments – has been evident throughout 2026, a season which has been good without being great.
She entered Wimbledon with a 26-11 record and WTA 1000 finals in Miami and Rome, but having not won a tournament title in almost nine months.
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Her Roland Garros title defence ended in a scratchy third-round defeat to Anastasia Potapova, seeing her drop to world No.7 after being as high as third in April.
Her last memory from Wimbledon was a first-round defeat to Dayana Yastremska, who overpowered her in straight sets in 2025. Yet she banished that with a 6-2 6-1 win over Tamara Korpatsch in the first round this year, a win requiring just 54 minutes.
Gauff’s former coach Brad Gilbert once told The Sit-Down podcast that “there's no reason why she shouldn't be good on any surface, because of her movement and her willingness to grind on the court”, and added: “I think ultimately the surface she will improve the most on is grass, because I think [that’s where] her game has a lot of upside.”
Two things seemed to have noticeably improved for Gauff at Wimbledon this year.
The first is her serve. Her numbers have improved sharply since Roland Garros – she’s serving more aces than double faults, while ratcheting up her speeds – and it seems to be trending positively longer-term.
After chronic battles with technical flaws and confidence on her delivery, Gauff brought biomechanist Gavin Macmillan into her team. As 2026 has unfolded, the double faults have reduced in frequency while her famed power has returned.
Gauff cranked a serve at 202km/h in her win over Korpatsch and blasted 10 aces past Sierra as her average first serve increased again.
“I'm going for way bigger serves than I normally do,” she admitted. “I think also because I'm changing my serve – well, I changed my serve, now I feel really confident that I can hit any spot at almost any moment.”
Serving success is no doubt contributing to her second improvement – her attitude to grass.
Historically, this has been the major venue at which Gauff has struggled most. At the three other Grand Slam tournaments, the American owns 20-plus match wins and a success rate well above 70 per cent. Yet at Wimbledon, those figures fall to 13 wins and 68 per cent, respectively, even after factoring in her two wins this week.
Factors such as her extreme forehand grip seemed ill-suited to grass, until Gauff watched Iga Swiatek triumph at Wimbledon in 2025.
“Last year Iga won, so we have very similar grips. I think that also maybe changed my perspective on how I can play on grass,” said Gauff, who also described focusing on better grasscourt footwork and aggressive, decisive shotmaking.
“I definitely think seeing her win last year gave me confidence of, ‘OK, I can be good on this surface, I just need to figure out how I have to play’.
“I feel I finally have an idea of what that looks like for me in my head, now it's about just executing it… Before I feel like I was always adjusting to my opponent. Now I feel like I'm making my opponent adjust to me.”
For just the second time in four years at SW19, Gauff has cleared the first round. And next up is fellow American Claire Liu, an in-form qualifier yet ranked more than 100 places lower than the 22-year-old.
A win would see Gauff equal her best Wimbledon showing, those being fourth round runs in 2019, 2021 and 2024 – the first of those when she announced herself as an emerging tennis superstar at just 15 years of age, before she went on to win two major titles.
It would also put her closer to the Wimbledon breakthrough that seems to be beckoning.
“[I’m] just reminding myself of the career that I've had so far at 22 is definitely up there with a lot of people,” Gauff said.
“Obviously I have so much ambition to do even more.”