Nerveless Yastremska leaves Paris champion Gauff's hopes in tatters

Could Coco Gauff achieve the "Channel slam" by following the French Open with a Wimbledon title?

- Paul MacInnes

That was the question being asked before the tournament, but an answer was not long in coming: no. Yesterday the second seed was knocked out in the first round at SW19, with the biggest shock how easily she was dispatched by the Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska.

The 21-year-old Gauff was at first outpunched and ultimately outplayed, but in the middle came a collapse all of her own making. An inability to match up against Yastremska's power in a series of fierce rallies only led to Gauff taking more risks, which rarely came off. When her serve began to depart her in the first set tie-break the writing was on the wall.

Gauff won the hearts of Wimbledon as a 15-year-old in 2019 when, in her first match at the championships, she beat Venus Williams to spark a run to the fourth round. She has not made it past that point since, however, and seemed very short on ideas of how to play her way out of the trouble Yastremska was inflicting on her.