Wimbledon board member sticks knife in on Coco Gauff after shock defeat
Coco Gauff was one of 23 seeded players to exit the tournament in the opening round, with the American losing to Dayana Yastremska on Tuesday afternoon
Wimbledon board member Tim Henman has expressed his excitement over the tournament's unpredictability this year. Coco Gauff's unexpected defeat to Dayana Yastremska resulted in her becoming the 23rd seed to exit in the opening round.
Despite winning the French Open title last month, the world No. 2 found it challenging to maintain her form.
While commentating for the BBC during Novak Djokovic's match against Alexandre Muller on Center Court, Henman was informed of Gauff's loss on Court 1.
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"In some respects, I think it's great," he remarked. "It shows the strength in depth, the fine margins that are involved and then you reflect back and think back about how the greats just dominated. They never lost in those early rounds."
Gauff also commented on the numerous upsets, which included the earlier defeat of her former doubles partner and No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula.
She noted: "I feel like historically Wimbledon always has so many upsets first rounds here, to be honest. I think it's always a topic.
"I mean, I think I would say really the quick turnaround most of the seeds are going deeper in Roland Garros, and then you spend like a long clay season, and then you have to come and try to adjust to grass.
"Like you said, some people play the week before, but it's like you come here. I think Jess won on Saturday. She's lucky that she was on this side of the draw to play on Tuesday. It's not the easy, quick turnaround."
"Then if you go deep in Roland Garros, you're debating on do I rush and play that week, or do I take time and play the week before? It's a tricky thing.
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"It seems like Carlos and Novak are the ones to figure it out. Even he had a tough first-round match. Yeah, I think it's just a combination of everything. I don't know if it's just the conditions this year.
"I really just think it's that in this turnaround, I think this slam out of all of them is the most prone to have upsets because of how quick the turnaround is from clay."
