Coco Gauff and What Could Have Been

The American star was one shot away from the Wimbledon final.

WIMBLEDON, England — Because this isn’t a traditional news website, I don’t publish the sort of at-the-buzzer match reports on Bounces that many tennis writers do.

But I know from experience—and still see from the colleagues sitting nearby me courtside—that in order to file instantly off a nailbiter match that could go either way, on-deadline writing often requires working on two documents simultaneously, one for each possible result.

But even though I wouldn’t have needed to publish it in the end, I already saw my version of a Coco Gauff victory story coming together on Thursday afternoon in the Wimbledon semifinals.

And what a victory it would have been.

Coco Gauff, after it didn’t quite happen. (Photo by Sipa US)