The most dangerous version of Coco Gauff has finally arrived

Coco Gauff is a tremendously accomplished young tennis professional. Having defeated Venus Williams when she was just 15 years old in 2019, she has gone on to win two grand slam championships in the subsequent years, and become the 10th-highest earning women’s player of all time. Now 22, she is currently ranked No. 7 in the world, having ranked as high as No. 2 before, with a 308-126 career record on the tour. Most people a decade older than her in the sport would kill for her resumé.

And yet, it always feels like Coco is still a good distance away from what everyone believes she can be. For all of the deep tournament runs she’s made, most of them have felt fraught—fans of Gauff are unaccustomed to dominant, clinical performances. What they’re used to are long sequences of small, escalating heart attacks. Coco does not impose herself in matches so much as let her opponents impose themselves; with her sport-leading defense—powered by speed, athleticism, an unfailing backhand, and mega-deep wells of willpower—she traps them into winding mirror funhouses of themselves. She is the ultimate backstop, fireproof and ever-moving.

It’s worked quite well, obviously, but at the same time, anyone can see that life could be easier for her on the court. If she fully weaponized her physicality, she could take more time away from opponents, and get the ball to more unhittable spots. There is a clear pathway for at least some of her many frantic three-setters to become calm, calculated two-set victories. Like so many players who have captured the tennis world’s imagination, she makes you wonder if that kind of winning will ever be in the cards for her, or if she requires cinematic drama to find her best self.

Coming into this year’s Wimbledon, Gauff hadn’t won a match on grass in two years. Since the tournament started, she’s won five, landing her in a semifinal this Thursday against Czech striker Karolina Muchova. Though—in classic Gauff form—four of those wins have gone the distance, she has gotten here by playing her most confident and assertive tennis ever. She’s displayed real signs of evolution and maturity in her game, potentially giving us a preview of the player she’ll become as her twenties stretch on into her thirties.

In wins against Belinda Bencic and her former doubles partner Jessica Pegula, No. 11 and No. 4 in the world respectively, Coco found a needed new ingredient to success. In the tight spot both players put her in, release was at the net. Gauff has always been good at punishing players who move up too eagerly. Dating all the way back to her scene-exploding win against Venus, she’s known how to lob the ball artfully over a bully. What she’s only starting to do, now, is become the bully herself. Up closer to the dividing line, her quick reflexes, touch, explosive jumping, and ability to back-pedal allow her to press advantages she has historically been content to milk over long rallies. As she realized this late in her match against Bencic, she pulled away; winning, ultimately, just minutes before the 11:00 P.M. London curfew took effect. She tapped her wrist when the match ended, smiling in reference to the timely conclusion.

Years from now, we might look back at the memeable moment as when Coco announced that it’s time for her to play more boldly. In her quarterfinal match against Pegula, the net play came sooner than it did against Bencic, and her serve—a source of great double-fault consternation just a year ago—was a consistent well of power and edge after some first-set nerves. She also took gambles, enough of which paid off, with slicing drop shots. It still required a long, grueling while to beat the always poised and clinical Pegula (who maintains a 5-4 upperhand in the head-to-head matchup), but we saw a fresh new vision of Coco along the way: that of women’s tennis’ best athlete maximizing her risk margins, and becoming more than just a winner. She’s beginning to look unbeatable.

Her next opponent is no joke. Muchova found the limits of Naomi Osaka’s inspiring comeback in her own quarterfinal match, and is ranked just one slot behind Gauff at No. 8 globally. Muchova is both powerful and versatile, and will seize on any lack of strategy or poise that Coco brings to the match. Gauff leads their lifetime matchup, 6-to-1, but they’ve never played each other on grass. While that’s a major variable, Gauff has thus far played the surface at a level that makes her capable of taking down both Muchova and the remaining field (though FanDuel has her as a slight underdog in the semifinal at +100).There’s no question that Coco, further into this tourney than she’s ever been, can grab her first Wimbledon title this weekend. Her biggest remaining battle in pursuit of that goal is with herself, and with the game that she’s still mastering. Time to see who wins.