{"id":1312219,"date":"2019-07-08T23:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T05:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/coco-gauffs-captivating-run-ends-against-simona-halep\/"},"modified":"2019-07-08T23:56:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T05:56:00","slug":"coco-gauffs-captivating-run-ends-against-simona-halep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/coco-gauffs-captivating-run-ends-against-simona-halep\/","title":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff\u2019s captivating run ends against Simona Halep"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
United States’ Cori “Coco” Gauff lost her women’s singles match against Romania’s Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-3, on day seven of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday.<\/strong>
Associated Press | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

WIMBLEDON, England \u2014 Out of escapes, out of surprises, Coco Gauff knew her captivating Wimbledon ride at age 15 was nearing its conclusion.<\/p>\n

The thousands of spectators at Court No. 1 on Monday realized it, too, so they made sure to show their appreciation for the youngest qualifier at the All England Club in the professional era and youngest Week 2 participant since 1991.<\/p>\n

Fans, most of whom probably hadn\u2019t heard of Gauff until last week, rose and roared as she fended off the initial two match points she faced against 2018 French Open champion Simona Halep. It was reminiscent of the way the Gauff began a comeback victory in her previous match. This time, though, Gauff could not come through, beaten by the older, more experienced Halep 6-3, 6-3.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really surprising, because you don\u2019t really expect this kind of support when you\u2019re in another country, not your home country. I really did feel like I was probably playing in New York. I\u2019m just really happy that people believe in me,\u201d said Gauff, who beat Venus Williams in the first round for quite a Grand Slam tournament debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t feeling my best, I wasn\u2019t playing my best,\u201d Gauff said as she wiped away tears at her news conference, where she noted she wasn\u2019t sure why she needed a visit from a doctor in the second set, \u201cbut they were still supporting me, no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Gauff couldn\u2019t get past former No. 1 Halep, another American, 55th-ranked Alison Riske, stopped the 15-match winning streak of the current No. 1, Ash Barty, eliminating her 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, Ash is playing well,\u201d Riske said. \u201cI believe that I am, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly true.<\/p>\n

She improved to 14-1 on grass courts this season and reached the first major quarterfinal of her career in 30 appearances.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll come against yet another player who has topped the WTA rankings, Serena Williams, who will be participating in her 14th quarterfinal at Wimbledon alone.<\/p>\n

Barty began perfectly, winning the first game of the match this way: 112 mph ace, 102 mph ace, 110 mph ace, 108 mph ace. She hit another pair of aces in her next service game and finished with 12. But Riske simply played so cleanly, delivering twice as many winners as unforced errors, 30-15, and won her fourth consecutive three-setter in the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t many holes in her game, full-stop,\u201d said Barty, who followed up her first Grand Slam championship at Roland Garros last month by grabbing a title at a grass-court tuneup tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday wasn\u2019t my day. I didn\u2019t win a tennis match; it\u2019s not the end of the world,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing right now. Give me an hour or so, we\u2019ll be all good. The sun\u2019s still going to come up tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s other quarterfinal on the top half of the women\u2019s draw will be No. 19 Johanna Konta of Britain against Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic. On the bottom half, it\u2019ll be No. 8 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, and Halep against Zhang Shuai of China.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s quarterfinals Wednesday are No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. No. 21 David Goffin, No. 2 Roger Federer vs. No. 8 Kei Nishikori, No. 3 Rafael Nadal against 65th-ranked Sam Querrey, and No. 23 Roberto Bautista Agut against No. 26 Guido Pella.<\/p>\n

Djokovic, Federer and Nadal all won in straight sets and are all in the quarters of a major tournament for the 24th time; one member of the Big Three won the title at 20 of those.<\/p>\n

Querrey hit 25 aces and saved all four break points he faced to get past Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) in the first all-American men\u2019s Week 2 matchup at Wimbledon in 19 years. Pella erased a two-set deficit to edge 2016 runner-up Milos Raonic 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 8-6.<\/p>\n

Halep is the highest-seeded woman remaining, after Barty was joined on the way out Monday by No. 3 Karolina Pliskova, who twice served for the victory in a 4-6, 7-5, 13-11 loss to Muchova, and No. 6 Petra Kvitova, a two-time champion eliminated by Konta 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.<\/p>\n

For Gauff, this was her seventh match in short order \u2014 three in qualifying, four in the main draw \u2014 and while she insisted she wasn\u2019t fatigued, she looked it.<\/p>\n

Still, with serves reaching 119 mph, a dynamic backhand that landed near lines and aggressive volleying, Gauff made an impression on anyone who watched her.<\/p>\n

Not to mention anyone who played her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great performance. I think if she keeps going, she will be (in the) top 10 soon,\u201d Halep said. \u201cShe will be a very tough opponent for everybody. If she keeps doing what she did here, she\u2019s going to get a lot of confidence and she can win big tournaments soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the trick will be to manage those sorts of expectations.<\/p>\n

Gauff is, after all, too young to drive a car. She is taking high school courses. Instead of hanging out at a mall or going to see a movie with friends or working as a camp counselor Monday, there she was at Wimbledon at 1 p.m., standing in the tunnel that leads to the court with her father, Corey.<\/p>\n

He draped his arm around her shoulders, then parted ways by giving his daughter a peck on the cheek.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http:\/\/twitter.com\/HowardFendrich<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

More AP Tennis: https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/apf-Tennis<\/a> and https:\/\/twitter.com\/AP\u2014Sports<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United States’ Cori “Coco” Gauff lost her women’s singles match against Romania’s Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-3, on day seven of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Monday.Associated Press | AP WIMBLEDON, England \u2014 Out of escapes, out of surprises, Coco Gauff knew her captivating Wimbledon ride at age 15 was nearing its conclusion. The thousands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 08:47:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}