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Seed carnage continues at Wimbledon on Day 2. Remember 2018, when only one Top-10 seeded woman reached the round of 16, and zero reached the quarterfinals? Or 2021, when only four Top-10 seeded women made it out of the second round?
At the tournament that has seen eight different women's singles winners in the last eight stagings, chaos reigns supreme on the women’s side. We could be headed for another tournament for the statisticians, as three more Top-10 seeds fell on Tuesday.
No.2-seeded Coco Gauff, this year’s Roland-Garros champion, was the latest to fall on a day that also saw No.3-seeded Jessica Pegula and No.5-seeded Zheng Qinwen fall prey to the upset bug.
Gauff fell 7-6(3) 6-1 to Dayana Yastremska. After winning her second title in Paris, the American played – and lost – her only match on grass in the leadup to the Championships, and suffered her second opening-round loss at Wimbledon in the last three seasons.
“When I saw the draw I knew I was going to have a tough match,” Gauff said in press. “Dayana played great, I felt like I wasn’t playing terrible on some points and she was just hitting winners. Facing someone who can strike the ball as well as she can is definitely difficult coming in."
Gauff said if she had it to do over again, she'd navigate the small window between raising the trophy in Paris and playing her first match at Wimbledon differently.
"I feel like mentally I was a little bit overwhelm with everything that came afterwards, so I didn't feel like I had enough time to celebrate and also get back into it," she said. "But it's the first time in this experience of, like, coming off a win and having to play Wimbledon. I definitely learned a lot of what I would and would not do again.” “I was really on fire,” said an elated Yastremska. “Playing against Coco is something special. She’s a great player, a great person, and we have a very good relationship. This court is made for the greatest players and I’m very grateful to be on it.”
Difficulty also hit the men, as four Top 10 seeds – No.3 Alexander Zverev, No.7-seeded Lorenzo Musetti, No.8-seeded Holger Rune and No.9-seeded Daniil Medvedev were knocked out.
The total of eight Top-10 seeds falling in round one is the highest in Wimbledon history.