"My serve is really what helped me today" - Gauff credits reliable serve for recent success

Coco Gauff cruised to the third round of the Wimbledon championships on Thursday, as she defeated Elena Vesnina in a dominant display on Centre Court.

The American required just 71 minutes to complete the 6-4 6-3 victory, saving two break points at 2-3 in the first set before racing through the rest of the match.

“It did feel different [to her previous Centre Court experience in 2019],” Gauff said after the match. “I honestly was more nervous coming in to today’s match. I think the biggest thing is I don’t really remember much from my Centre Court experience in 2019, I feel like it was all a blur.

“Going into today, I felt like a completely different player and person. I felt like there were moments in the match when the pressure was on, where I could have mentally disengaged with the match in the past, but I did a good job of calming my nerves."

The 17-year old was impressive on serve, hitting 71% of her first serves in the first set. The 20th seed even hit her first 120mph serve of the tournament, and credits her newfound weapon as one of the reasons for her recent success.

“For me, it was just trying to get a rhythm, I made a lot of unforced errors, more than I’m used to, but when I needed to step in, I did and my serve is really what helped me today," admitted Gauff. "My serve has been helping me all throughout the French and all throughout here so that’s what I relied on today.”

Gauff will now face the unseeded Kaja Juvan in the third round, as the Slovenian defeated Clara Burel in their second round encounter.