An all-American clash at the 2023 Wimbledon ended in an upset as Sofia Kenin ousted compatriot Coco Gauff.
Gauff's Wimbledon prep was an interesting affair as she crashed out early in Berlin following one match won. She then played in Eastbourne at the WTA 500 event once more and won a couple of matches but lost to eventual champion Madison Keys.
She was drawn against another American at Wimbledon and once again Gauff couldn't get over the American hump. Kenin herself hasn't had what could be described as a spectacular prep but she played a couple of matches, went through the qualifiers, and gave herself some confidence.
This Wimbledon was supposed to be a huge one for Gauff. She brought in a new coach and everything was going to be perfect and then it wasn't. It ended in the opening round after a 3-set battle. Kenin took the opening set mostly because she did the crucial things better. She served more consistently which allowed her to dominate rallies easier.
They had the same number of winners but Kenin had fewer errors than proved enough. The second set saw Gauff storm back to make it 1-1 and it was mostly due to her serving better. Sometimes it's that simple on grass.
The better serves allowed her to take better initiative and she had almost three times as many winners as Kenin had (18 to 6). The final set saw Gauff lose her serve early as Kenin remained very solid. After missing out on a couple of big chances to break back, Gauff predictably collapsed allowing Kenin to escape with the match in three sets.
The final score was 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 for Kenin who had fewer winners but also errors than Gauff. Kenin had 12 unforced errors less than Gauff and the vast majority of those were pretty costly for Coco. Huge win for Kenin who will face Xinyu Wang in the second round, and showed that she was really happy after the win.
"I can't event talk, I'm super happy, Coco played a tough match, I knew I had to play my best to win. Just play point by point, stick to my plan, and I'm really happy to finish before the dark. I'm just super proud of myself."
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