Gauff beats curfew, sets Pegula Wimbledon QF
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- Coco Gauff defeated Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday, reaching her first Wimbledon quarterfinal — the only Grand Slam where she had yet to reach that stage after four previous fourth-round runs.
- Gauff converted match point with a service winner at 10:58 p.m. local time, two minutes before the All England Club's 11 p.m. curfew; she later joked, "Glad I didn't choose basketball."
- Gauff, 22, becomes the youngest American woman to reach quarterfinals at all four Grand Slams since Serena Williams did so at age 19 at the 2001 French Open.
- Jessica Pegula (No. 4 seed) beat fellow American Iva Jovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 to set up an all-American quarterfinal with Gauff — the first top-10 all-American ladies' match at Wimbledon since the 2009 final between Serena and Venus Williams.
- Barbora Krejcikova's loss to Karolina Muchova (7-5, 5-7, 6-3) guarantees a new women's Wimbledon champion, extending the streak to 10 different winners across 10 tournaments — the longest such run in the event's history.
- Naomi Osaka (14th seed) upset world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 7-6 (2) on Centre Court, setting up a Muchova-Osaka quarterfinal.
- Gauff improved to 23-7 in three-setters at majors, the third-best record in the Open era behind Steffi Graf and Wendy Turnbull.
Why it matters: Gauff has now completed the Grand Slam quarterfinal set at age 22, the youngest American to do so since Williams — and her Wimbledon quarterfinal is the first all-American top-10 ladies' matchup at the All England Club since 2009. Krejcikova's loss locks in an unprecedented 10th consecutive new women's Wimbledon champion.
