I Need to Forget Paris

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday June 28, 2025

How will Coco Gauff process playing Wimbledon so soon after she just climbed a major hurdle in Paris, where she became the first American woman to win Roland-Garros since Serena Williams in 2015?

Gauff says it shouldn’t be a problem. She’s always been a player who has no problem letting the past go.

“I’m very much someone who can look ahead very quickly,” she told the media at Wimbledon on Saturday. “Once I got back from New York, I was pretty much more focused on here, just thinking about what I need to do, where I feel the areas of my game I need to improve on.”

Gauff, a two-time champion who enters Wimbledon as the No.2 seed, has never reached a quarterfinal at the All England Club. She’s hoping to change that this year.

She says she’ll have plenty of time to celebrate her achievements after the season.

“I think for me I’d rather just stay in the moment and think about this and kind of forget the French,” she said. “I still want to do really well here. I feel pretty confident on the court. Yeah, for me it was important just to forget, which is easy for me because I’m always looking for the next thing.

“I think I want to get rid of it [from my memory]. When November comes, I’ll revisit.”

Gauff says she has spent most of the last two weeks re-acclimating her game to the grass, which means learning to hit more slice, and hitting a flatter ball. There has also been extra emphasis on the movement and on the serve.

“It’s obviously a lot different than clay,” the 21-year-old said. “[I am just trying to] keep the ball lower. Obviously clay, it’s playing with a lot of height, heaviness, and that type of game. [On grass] I feel you need to play a little bit lower and a little bit more aggressive than the clay season, which is a bit difficult just because you spend I don’t know however many long weeks the clay is playing a certain type of way.

“Then we come on grass, and we have 13 days to completely – not completely change because you still have the core of your game – but just change a little bit how you play.”