Where 'vintage' Coco Gauff showed she is 'best in the world' during win over Jessica Pegula to reach Wimbledon semi-finals
Updated 08/07/2026 at 07:39 GMT+1
React to this story
Coco Gauff advanced to her first Wimbledon semi-final with a battling win over fellow American Jessica Pegula. It was Gauff’s fourth successive three-set victory at the Grand Slam, and both Pegula and TNT Sports expert Johanna Konta highlighted an area where Gauff has shown she is the ”best in the world.”
Highlights: Djokovic, Gauff dig deep as Sinner races through to semi-finals
Video credit: SNTV
Gauff’s hard-fought victory over Pegula means she has now reached the semi-finals at all four Grand Slams at the age of 22. She said afterwards that her Wimbledon run was "pretty insane” given she was on a four-match losing streak on the surface before the tournament.
She was also down a set in the quarter-finals, but Pegula said Gauff "stepped up on pressure points really well" and showed a "vintage" side of her game.
"When she needed to lock in and just not miss a ball, that's what she did," Pegula said. "But that's I think vintage Coco. I think that's happened in all of our matches. It's just whether I'm able to capitalise on it or not.Â
"But she's the best in the world at that. How well she competes and how she makes you beat her no matter the score or the moment I think is her best attribute and why she was a major champion and has done so well.
"That's every time I play her. I'm not sure if it really made much of a difference being at a Grand Slam. It didn't really feel that different to me out there. Felt like a lot of our other matches.”
Gauff is the seventh active player to reach the semi-finals or better at all four Grand Slams after Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Karolina Pliskova, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
She said she was not "panicking" when the match went to three sets following her previous victories at the tournament.
Konta praised Gauff’s fighting spirit and her ability to win matches even when not playing at her best.
”It’s not even about how well she has been playing, but how unbelievably she has been competing. She is the best scrappiest player, and that is a compliment," Konta said.
”It doesn’t matter what level she goes out on the court with because she will find her level and without a doubt her competitive spirit will be there from the first point until the very last.
”Pegula came out playing very good grass-court tennis and Coco wasn’t serving great, the forehand was a bit shaky, the usual things we might see from her.
"But the way she turned it around, the way she raised the speed on her serve, the way she started moving the ball around and coming to the net. It really threw Pegula off her game and she struggled to find an answer."
- Williams 'trying' to play before US Open - but where?
- Gauff fights back to reach first Wimbledon semi-final
Gauff will play Karolina Muchova in the semis after she beat Naomi Osaka in straight sets.
Pegula was looking to make the last four at Wimbledon for the first time but said "kudos" to Gauff for turning the match around.
”She made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. I thought I started off returning really well and put a lot of pressure on her serve right from the beginning. Then it just kind of flipped.
”I think maybe I was overthinking it a little bit and should have just trusted what I thought I should have done. Instead, I was getting caught and allowing her to get more freedom on her serve.
”I think maybe at the end I should have maybe changed up the pace and sliced a bit more because I felt like she got onto the pace a bit and started playing much better. Yeah, she was playing well at the end.
”There's just a couple things here and there that you wish you could change, but it doesn't always mean that it's going to be a better outcome.”
Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here to enjoy more content like this.
Enjoy daily highlights from Wimbledon 2026 on tntsports.co.uk and the TNT Sports app, plus watch and stream highlights each evening and the men's and women's singles finals live on TNT Sports and HBO Max
Related Matches
/images.sports.gracenote.com/images/lib/basic/geo/country/flag/large/2209.png)
6
3
3
4
6
6
Commentary
Advertisement
Advertisement