Coco Gauff has made her first-ever Wimbledon quarterfinal and will face her former doubles partner/good friend Jessica Pegula in an All-Palm Beach County battle at the All England Club.
Gauff, the Delray Beach icon, and Pegula, who has lived in Boca Raton since she was a young teenager, will be the first match Tuesday, July 7 on Centre Court with a 8:30 a.m. start.
“(Pegula) is always a tough opponent for me,” Gauff told reporters in England. “I think she’s really consistent and gets a lot of balls back and can also play really aggressive, too. I think it’s just going to be another one of those where I just have to be in it from start to finish.”
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Pegula holds a 5-3 edge over Gauff in head-to-head singles meetings as the 32-year-old seeks her first Grand Slam singles title. Pegula hasn’t played Gauff in 2026 but last faced her at 2025 season-ending WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia and winning last November.
Gauff, 22, has captured Grand Slam crowns at the U.S. Open and French Open, made the Australian Open quarterfinals but she had never crashed into Wimbledon’s last 8 until late Sunday night.
The 7th seed, Gauff beat Belinda Bencic in a 3-set, fourth-rounder, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 just two minutes before Wimbledon’s 11 p.m. curfew.
Gauff tapped her wrist after a service winner on her first match point ended it just in time, preventing the two players from returning the next day.
Gauff was 0-3 in three prior Wimbledon fourth-round matches, losing in straight sets each bout.
Coco Gauff’s winning point similar to Kawhi Leonard buzzer beater
Gauff said the curfew-deadline service winner “kind of reminded me of” Kawhi Leonard’s Game 7, bounce-off-the-rim, buzzer-beater in 2019 for Toronto in the conference finals over Philadelphia. It was the first Game 7 buzzer-beater in NBA history.
Gauff said the Bencic comeback has given her “confidence’’ to move onward.
“It was a thriller, honestly,’’ Gauff said. “I think this was so far my best match of the tournament, probably one of my best grass matches ever. I’m definitely proud with the level I brought today.”
Pegula’s father, Terry Pegula, owns the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. Though born in Buffalo, Jessica Pegula grew up in Pittsburgh before moving for tennis reasons to Boca Raton at age 13.
It’s Pegula’s first Wimbledon quarterfinals since 2023. She is now 8-0 vs. Americans this year after the fourth-round win Sunday over rising American teenager Ana Jovic.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula meeting in Wimbledon quarterfinals
Reporting by Marc Berman, Special to The Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Marc Berman, Special to The Post | USA TODAY Network
