Coco Gauff reached the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time in her career after defeating 32-year-old Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 on July 7 at the All England Club [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Gauff, 22, expressed surprise at her progress, saying, "Pretty insane, honestly. Considering how I hadn't won a match on grass in two years before this tournament I'm definitely just really happy with how I played today" [3]. She added, "I think a lot of people had me going out in the first or second round this tournament. After seven years playing in this tournament, it is the first time I've walked onto Centre Court and not felt nervous" [5].
Gauff had previously reached her first Wimbledon quarter-finals on July 5 by beating Belinda Bencic [2]. Pegula had also made it to the quarter-finals before losing to Gauff [6, 3, 4]. Pegula commented on a tough match against Iva, saying, "I just couldn't find my serve in the first set even though I wasn't playing badly. Luckily I started to serve better" [6].
Gauff will face 29-year-old Karolina Muchova in the semi-finals. Muchova reached the quarter-finals on July 5 by beating Barbora Krejcikova and then advanced to the semi-finals on July 8 after defeating Elise Mertens [7, 3, 5, 8].
Linda Noskova, aged 21, also reached her first Wimbledon semi-final on July 8 by beating Elise Mertens [9, 8]. Noskova had reached the quarter-finals by defeating Madison Keys on July 6 [9].
Earlier in the tournament, on July 2, Taylor Fritz and Alexander Zverev progressed to the third round [10, 11]. Gauff had entered the fourth round on July 3 by defeating Claire Liu [1].
The Wimbledon semi-finals featuring Gauff against Muchova are scheduled following the matches played through July 8, setting up a key clash in the women's draw as the tournament heads to its final stages [3, 5, 8].
