No. 7 seed Coco Gauff ended a four-match losing streak on grass in emphatic fashion in the first round of Wimbledon on Monday by beating Germany's Tamara Korpatsch in under an hour.
Gauff hadn't won a grass-court match of any kind since beating Sonay Kartal in the third round of the 2024 Championships. She proceeded to lose in the Round of 16 that year to compatriot Emma Navarro -- a result which began a four-match skid on the surface. That included an 0-2 record in 2025 after winning Roland Garros, with a first-round loss to Dayana Yastremska at the All England Club the second of those, and a three-set defeat to Paula Badosa in her only grass-court match this year in Berlin two weeks ago.
Telling reporters prior to the start of the Championships that she hoped to make her relationship with the surface "natural," Gauff looked the part against Korpatsch -- who came into the match on a nine-match losing streak on the surface herself dating back to 2023.
"It was just going to be who's going to finally break [their respective streaks]," Gauff told reporters afterwards. "I'm happy that it was me today."
"I definitely didn't want to continue three years," she continued. "I don't know, even in Berlin when I lost, I felt like I played a good set. I'm trying to take the positives where I can."
The pair hadn't played each other in seven years -- and their first meeting was a notable one. The German was a 6-4, 6-2 winner against Gauff in qualifying at the 2019 Upper Austria Ladies Linz -- a tournament Gauff eventually won as a lucky loser for her first career tour-level title. And while Korpatsch came from 3-1 down in the first set to win that match with ease, the reprise saw Gauff lead wire-to-wire.
The American won nine consecutive games from 2-2 in the first set to race away with the eventual 6-2, 6-1 win.
Gauff advances to face Argentina's Solana Sierra in Round 2, with the two players set to meet for the first time in just over a month. On May 9, Sierra led Gauff 3-0 in the third set of their third-round match in Rome before Gauff rallied to win 5-7, 6-0, 6-4.
Sierra, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon last year as a lucky loser, had a much more dramatic road there. She saved two match points in her 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 opening win against Hungary's Anna Bondar.
