Following her impressive triumph at Roland Garros, Coco Gauff said, “I think I can give myself the best shot [of winning Wimbledon] by trying to keep the moment [winning the French Open] as minimized as possible.” Her best record in this tournament was reaching the fourth round thrice. But after her heroics on clay, her fans began feeling optimistic about her chances on grass. However, the optimism didn’t last long as Gauff was swiftly defeated by Xinyu Wang in the Round of 16 at the Grass Court Championships in Berlin. After losing her first match on grass, she admitted it was a “tough one“, but she also expressed her excitement to finally kickstart her campaign at Wimbledon. But at SW19, she surprisingly went down to the world number 42, Dayana Yastremska in the first round. But was the reason behind this downfall?

Well, the factors are many. First and foremost her poor record on grass and especially entering the tournament after a shocking defeat at the hands of Wang in her previous tournament. It may have dampened her confidence, which she gained from her Roland Garros campaign. Other than that, she had committed 29 unforced errors and 9 double faults in this match against Yastremska. And then there’s the weather. We’ve seen plenty of upsets at this year’s Wimbledon, so is the soaring heat to blame? Well, American sports analyst Pat McAfee recently shared a few strong messages following Coco Gauff’s recent exit.

On the opening day, the air temperatures on the grounds had reached 32°C (89.6°F) at 16:00 BST, surpassing the previous record at the start of the Championships (29.3°C/84.74°F in 2001). Players were given ice packs, cold towels and plenty of water to regulate their body temperatures during the changeover. Even on Day 2, players faced a similar situation. During a recent conversation with Wimbledon Correspondent Nigel Seeley on ESPN, Pat McAfee said, “The Queen obviously goes to Wimbledon..it’s a big deal $80,000 to lose in the final round, I just learned that.”

Further on, he raised a question mark. “Was it a British team that was sitting in the locker room when it was 87 degrees. You guys are hilarious! On European standards, it’s hot. I think you guys deal with the cold a lot better because there’s a lot of that weather. We’re going through 102-105 degrees in Indiana, Louisiana, Indiana, New York, and that’s an interesting thing over there in Europe about the heat. Like that kind of affects people.”

In response, Seeley said, “We don’t have air conditioning in this country..We’re only gonna have one hot day in five years, so what’s the point?” McAfee then replied, “That’s bloody f-cking mad.”

If we look at the upsets at Wimbledon, just like Coco Gauff, even world number 3, Jessica Pegula, went down in her first round match to Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto by 2-6,3-6 in just 58 minutes. After the match Pegula said, “It’s really a bummer to lose. I haven’t lost first round of a slam in a very long time, so that sucks.”

On the men’s side, we have seen players like Alexander Zverev, Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, and Daniil Medvedev witnessing a similar fate. Today, even America’s Frances Tiafoe also went out of the 2025 Wimbledon Champions. Coco Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert, said, “Upsets are contagious. If you’re seeded, be wary before you leave that locker room.” But what was Gauff’s reaction to this shocking defeat?

Coco Gauff’s heartfelt reaction after her early exit from Wimbledon

She was in tears after facing a defeat in the first round of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships. With that defeat, Coco Gauff became only third French Open women’s singles champion to lose in Wimbledon’s first round in the Open Era. It was also the first time that she made an exit from a Grand Slam in the first round since Wimbledon two years ago and just the third in her career. Reacting to this heartbreaking loss, Coco Gauff admitted that she was “disappointed” and “struggling in the locker room” after the match. 

The 21-year-old said, “I’m trying to be positive. After the match, I definitely was struggling in the locker room. I don’t like losing. For me, the main thing I’m sure my team and everyone are going to tell me is, ‘You did well at Roland Garros, don’t be so upset,’ things like that. I don’t really like losing. I don’t know, I just feel a little bit disappointed in how I showed up today.” Coco Gauff admitted that she felt like she could have been a little better in those tough tiebreaker moments, especially after the French Open, where she claims that she learned a lot in those tiebreakers.

However, having said that, Gauff also revealed, “Obviously I’m not going to dwell on this too long because I want to do well at the US Open. Maybe losing in the first round here isn’t the worst thing in the world because I have time to reset. It definitely sucks.” How did the tennis world react to her Wimbledon exit? 

Tracy Austin was commentating in that match for the BBC and looked quite impressed with the performance of Dayana Yastremska. But having said that, she admitted that Coco Gauff never really felt comfortable on the grass. Even Andy Roddick, who didn’t ever look too optimistic with Gauff’s chances on grass, said, “Coco Gauff loses to Yastremska. We told you that it was going to be a tough one. It’s just game styles. She is great at what she does, and what she does, the most challenging surface is going to be grass, especially against a big hitter like Yastremska.“

There were quite a few upsets at this year’s Wimbledon and probably there will be a few more in the upcoming days. Catch every key moment from the Championships as it happens. But where according to you actually went wrong for Gauff?