Coco loses at Wimbledon, while Williams wins again

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Coco Gauff's unexpected but remarkable run at Wimbledon is over.

The 15-year-old American, who became the youngest player to qualify for Wimbledon's main draw in the professional era, lost to former No. 1 Simona Halep 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth round today.

Gauff knocked out five-time champion Venus Williams in the first round, and then saved two match points in the third round to reach the second week of a Grand Slam tournament in her debut.

Playing on No. 1 Court, the second biggest stadium at the All England Club, Gauff had plenty of support from the crowd. But Halep, the 2018 French Open champion and a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2014, had the better shots. She broke Gauff five times and took advantage of 29 unforced errors.

Gauff did manage to save two more match points when serving at 5-2, but Halep won the next game to reach the quarterfinals.

Earlier, Serena Williams advanced to the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the 14th time, beating Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 6-2.

Even though she is short on matches this year, Williams is still big on grass.

The seven-time Wimbledon champion, who missed about a year of play while she had a baby in 2017 but returned to the tennis tour in 2018, entered the tournament without having played since the third round of the French Open – skipping the grass-court warm-up tournaments.

"I definitely haven't had enough [matches]," said Williams, who had been dealing with an injured left knee. "I have more matches this week than literally the past five months. So, yikes."

Williams reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, then retired from a match at Indian Wells, withdrew from matches in Miami and Rome, and then played at the French Open.

"I know that I can play, and now that I'm feeling better physically I almost feel a relief more than anything," Williams said. "Like, OK, finally I can play tennis."