Coco Gauff was left putting on a brave face after squandering a golden opportunity to reach the Wimbledon final, the American superstar missing the easiest of forehand winners on match point to allow Karolina Muchova to pull off a great escape.
With Linda Noskova then defeating Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk later on Thursday (Friday AEST) in straight sets in the other semi, it means Wimbledon will now enjoy the first all-Czech final in its 149-year history and there will be third women's SW19 champion in four years from the small European nation.
In a third-set match tiebreak to decide a magnificent sunshine-laden semi-final on Centre Court, Gauff will surely forever rue the moment she had match point at 9-8 when all she had to do was put away the simplest of forehand winners at the net but instead dinked a drop shot that plonked agonisingly into the net.
