Coco Gauff tears up after Wimbledon defeat and explains impact of Centre Court snub

Coco Gauff started welling up when discussing her premature Wimbledon exit at the hands of Dayana Yastremska. The American insisted that maintaining a positive attitude is one of her strong points, but tumbling out of the tournament in the first round left her 'struggling' in the locker room.

Three weeks after Aryna Sabalenka faced fierce criticism for taking the glory away from Gauff following their French Open final battle, the youngster was determined not to do the same to Yastremska. But she did concede that her match being moved from Centre Court to Court 1, and the projected start time consequently changing, did affect her pre-match routine.

"Obviously, I was preparing to play a little bit later," said Gauff. "I found out at about 6:35pm (BST) that we would not be on before 7:30pm. At that point I hadn't really eaten yet. I was trying to hold off because I thought maybe we were going on after Novak [Djokovic on Centre Court].

"I don't think it really affected the match today, to be honest. I've played with quick turnarounds and things like that. Yeah, I figured we would be moved at some point, but we don't know. But I definitely don't think the court change affected the way the match went."

Gauff was gracious in defeat as she warmly shook Yastremska's hand at the net and let her soak in the applause. And although she spoke candidly about the lessons she will take from this year's Wimbledon outing in her post-match press conference, Gauff admitted that it still wasn't an easy loss to process.

To be the first to receive the latest Wimbledon news, join our WhatsApp community or Wimbledon newsletter

"After the match, I definitely was struggling in the locker room," said the 21-year-old. "I don't like losing. Yeah, I mean, obviously I'm not going to dwell on this too long because I want to do well at US Open. Maybe losing here first round isn't the worst thing in the world because I have time to reset."

Gauff then began to get visibly emotional as she added: "Yeah, it definitely sucks."

The Floridian has never been beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon, making it her least successful Grand Slam on the calendar. And her latest outing lasted just one hour and 18 minutes as the big-hitting Yastremska won a first-set tiebreak and then took the contest by the scruff of the neck in the second set to come away with a 7-6 6-1 win.

The Ukrainian will face Anastasia Zakharova in the second round while Gauff looks forward to getting back onto the hard courts of her homeland.