WIMBLEDON, England — For Coco Gauff, Wimbledon is the place of dreams and nightmares.
It was the place where on July 1, 2019, the then 15-year-old school student took a break from her exams to cause one of the biggest shocks in tennis by toppling her idol and five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the first round.
Anyone lucky enough to have a ringside seat that day knew that the precocious teenager was armed with the weapons, and the mindset, to go all the way at the grasscourt major and predicted that it would be only a matter of time before she would be holding aloft the most famous trophy in women’s tennis.
However, four years after Wimbledon went Coco-crazy, Gauff found herself in “a dark place” and questioned her own future in the sport after she was jettisoned out of the All England Club in the first-round by an American qualifier ranked 128th in the world.
Thankfully for Gauff, what at the time appeared to be the nadir of her career ended up being the making of her as she went on to win her maiden Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open just two months later and reached the semi-finals at this season’s first two majors.
Knowing that things “couldn’t get any worse” at Wimbledon than last year, Gauff was simply unstoppable on Monday as she walloped fellow American Caroline Dolehide 6-1 6-2 to banish her demons.
“Playing freely, it just feels fun. You feel like no matter what you do, it’s going to be right. That’s what I felt like today,” the 20-year-old told reporters.
“I was very nervous going into today. Obviously there’s some times when you do bad at a tournament, you let those same feelings creep in. Last year I lost in the first round and it was very tough for me.”
Gauff produced a stream of irresistible winners to bamboozle the 51st-ranked Dolehide and dropped only one point on serve during a formidable first-set performance.
Such was her confidence she conjured an incredible crosscourt lob into the far corner which she greeted with a one-armed salute, while the Centre Court crowd jumped to their feet to roar their approval.
The world number two kept up the barrage of sizzling winners in the second set and despite overcooking a forehand on her first match point, she made no mistake on her second and will be determined to improve on her two fourth round showings over the next fortnight.
“Wimbledon is the place – not where the dream started, but where I believed that the dream was possible. I’ve played on a lot of big courts but every time I play here I feel even more nervous – even more than in a grand slam final,” she said.
“There is something about Centre Court that’s so special. I don’t know how many more times I’ll get the chance to play on this special court. Hopefully many more times.”
In other women’s results, former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka returned to Wimbledon after a five-year absence and navigated a tricky first-round match against France’s Diane Parry on Monday, winning 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 with the help of nervous serving from her opponent.
The 26-year-old, who entered the draw as a wild card, looked to be in total command in the first set as her hefty groundstrokes struck the lines and her big serve continually forced Parry on to the back foot.
But Osaka, who returned to the tour this year after 15 months of maternity leave, appeared to lose concentration and rhythm in the second set and 21-year-old Parry, ranked No. 53, took advantage.
“I wish I could say I enjoyed [the match] all the time,” Osaka, who has won both the US and Australian Opens twice, said in an interview on court. “My heart was racing.”
The match seesawed into the third set with the players trading breaks at the start.
Osaka saved break points in a difficult ninth game to lead 5-4 before Parry’s serve crumbled and she produced three double faults to concede the match.
“I feel like these are the type of matches that you kind of have to play just in order to ease into the tournament,” Osaka said after thanking the crowd for getting behind her.
Osaka was followed on to Court Two by another former Grand Slam champion as American Sloane Stephens reached the second round with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of France’s Elsa Jacquemot.
Stephens, who won the US Open in 2017, had been due to face two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka but the Belarus player withdrew because of a shoulder injury.
There was also success for another former US Open winner trying to rediscover her old spark as Canada’s Bianca Andreescu beat Romanian Jaqueline Cristian in straight sets.
No. 7-seeded Jasmine Paolini, the French Open runner-up last month, got past the first round at Wimbledon on her fourth try. The Italian beat Sara Sorribes Tormo 7-5, 6-3.
No. 9-seeded Maria Sakkari was among the early winners, beating McCartney Kessler 6-3, 6-1.
