Coco Gauff has been through to the Wimbledon round-of-16 and come one win away from reaching her first quarterfinal at The All England Club after overcoming a British wildcard on Friday.
Gauff, who is the No. 2 seed at this year's Wimbledon, overcame British world No. 298 Sonay Kartal 6-4 6-0 on Court 1 in just over an hour of play.
Going into the match, Gauff didn't know much about Kartal, a British wildcard who was playing in a Grand Slam third round for the first time in her career. And early on, the 22-year-old Briton was playing inspired tennis and trying to be aggressive against the 2023 US Open champion and the American was definitely getting tested.
But after making some adjustments, Gauff ended up claiming a routine win and setting up a round-of-16 meeting against fellow American and No. 19 seed Emma Navarro.
When Gauff, 20, and 23-year-old Navarro meet, it will be their second meeting as the current world No. 2 won their first meeting with a 6-3 6-1 scoreline in Auckland earlier this year.
Gauff won the last eight games against Kartal
Gauff made a strong start to the Kartal match, breaking the British wildcard in the very first game of the match. After the Gauff started the match with a break, not a single break point was seen in the next six games as the second-seeded American led 4-3 after the opening seventh games.
But then, Kartal earned her first break points in the eight game and converted her second break point to tie the opener to four games apiece.
After getting the break back, Kartal was very aggressive and going for her shots but Gauff saved the Briton's game point in the ninth game before claiming a break in that same game to go 5-4 up. In the following game, the 20-year-old American realized her second set point to take the first set.
After losing the opener in a heartbreaking way, Kartal's game collapsed and Gauff won the second set without a dropped game to finish the game on a run of eight consecutive games won.
