“Was it the right one? Maybe not” – Gauff and the missed drop shot that kept Muchova alive on the way to the Wimbledon final
Coco Gauff admitted she’d probably have played a slice forehand instead if she had that match point over again, while Karolina Muchova revealed she’d already tracked down Gauff’s drop shot once before in the same tiebreak and expected to get to this one too. Their duelling accounts of one point decided a Wimbledon semi-final and sent Muchova through to Saturday’s final.
Coco Gauff, Wimbledon 2026 | © PsNewz
Coco Gauff will replay one point over and over. Serving at 9-8 in a deciding tiebreak against Karolina Muchova on Thursday, the American followed a big first serve with a forehand drop shot that found the net instead of the corner.
“There’s one thing to be, like, why play a dropshot,” the No. 7 seed said after the match, “but then I think how many points I won off the dropshot. Was it the right one in that moment? Maybe not. But then also, if I make it, everyone’s going to say how clutch of a shot that was. I think that’s just tennis. You lose some points off margin.”
Tracy Austin had told BBC viewers that Gauff appeared to change her mind six times over what to play on that point. Gauff pushed back on the number but conceded she’d second-guessed the choice. “Honestly, I didn’t change my mind too much,” she said. “I think I feel like if I had to do it over, I probably would have gone for a slice forehand down the line. The ball bounce wasn’t really like that high. I don’t know. I have to watch it back honestly to say.”
Muchova : “I would get there”
Muchova also revealed the drop shot was not a one-off gamble – Gauff had already tried it earlier in the same tiebreak. “In a few points before that when she hit a dropshot, I didn’t get the shot back,” Muchova said. “Then she kind of won the rally. I was happy it didn’t go over the net.” Facing the shot again on match point, from deep behind the baseline, she never doubted she would reach it. “I thought I would get there, actually,” she said.
Muchova, the Czech No. 10 seed, seized the reprieve. She lost her own first match point when she slipped on the grass, then closed out a 12-10 tiebreak when Gauff’s last running forehand landed long, sealing a 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(12-10) semi-final win that sends her into a second career Grand Slam final.
“You’re up and down in 10 seconds,” Muchova said after the match. “You have a match point, then match point down. It’s no time to think, but very nerve-wracking. I’m really kind of shaking and trying to sink it in.”
For Gauff, the lone Grand Slam champion left in the women’s draw, the defeat capped the best Wimbledon of her career – she had never previously gone beyond the fourth round at the All England Club. She refused to call it painful. “Thousands of people would love to lose the semifinals at Wimbledon on match point,” she said. “It’s not a painful story. I think it will make my next moment when I win a match like this even sweeter.”
I needed something like this to have my belief at this tournament.
She was just as direct about what the run meant regardless of the outcome. “Regardless of the result, it’s a breakthrough tournament for me,” Gauff said. “I needed something like this to have my belief at this tournament.”
Muchova, who lost her only previous major final to Iga Swiatek at the 2023 French Open, will face either No. 9 seed Linda Noskova or No. 12 seed Marta Kostyuk on Saturday, a match guaranteed to crown a first-time Grand Slam champion.
