Coco Gauff suffers earliest Wimbledon exit after defeat by Anisimova

LONDON: Coco Gauff's Wimbledon challenge came unstuck in the third round on Saturday when she was beaten by familiar foe Amanda Anisimova 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-1 in an all-American showdown. Anisimova will meet Serena Williams's conqueror Harmony Tan for a place in the quarter-finals.

The two Florida-based players had made their way through the junior ranks at the same time, with Anisimova thrashing Gauff to win the U.S. Open junior title in 2017.

Hence when the duo walked on to Centre Court on the sixth day of these championships, they were already all too familiar with each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Yet during the opening exchanges, 11th seed Gauff threatened to wallop Anisimova as she had two break points to go 4-0 up. An error from the 18-year-old Gauff and a smash from her opponent kept 20th seed Anisimova alive in that game.

From then on, Anisimova began to work her way back into the contest, winning the next four games to nudge 4-3 ahead in what turned out to be a tight, yet topsy-turvy, first set.

When Anisimova smacked a forehand into the net to surrender the opening set, Gauff shook Centre Court with a roar of "Come on".

At that stage, only one point separated the two players with Gauff having bagged 51 of the 101 points contested.

But Anisimova refused to roll over and, despite an early exchange of breaks in the second set, she jumped ahead 3-1. From then on, she was determined to make her debut on tennis's most famous stage a day to remember.

A backhand winner sealed the win and condemned Gauff to her earliest defeat at Wimbledon.

Unseeded French woman Harmony Tan, playing in the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time, wasted no time in extending her stay here, beating Britain's Katie Boulter.

The two giant-killers faced each other in the first match of the day on No.2 Court and the French woman was in unstoppable form as she beat her opponent 6-1, 6-1.

The 25-year-old Boulter was playing the third round of a major for the first time. Boulter is ranked No.118 while Tan is placed No. 115, so with the two players separated by only 18 points in the rankings, their clash was expected to be close. But composed from the word go, the nerveless Frenchwoman was always in charge as she forged her way to victory in just 51 minutes. Agencies

Also Read: India U-17 Women lose against Netherlands

Also Watch: