Coco Gauff moves on at Wimbledon but Anca Todoni serves notice

Gauff moved safely into the third round at Wimbledon, but Todoni showed flashes of being an elite player one day.

Anca Todoni simply isn’t ready yet. The 19-year-old Romanian, like every professional tennis player, needs to find her way in the sport a bit. Few begin their careers by winning at a high level and then sustain that for as long as they play the sport. At this point in both players’ careers, Coco Gauff is the better player.

That last part is a bit odd, too. While Todoni is still young and just beginning to play WTA-level events, Gauff is only 20 years old herself. As long as Gauff has been playing – and playing well – one might assume that the American has been on the tour for 10 years. Not quite.

This is why the second-round Wimbledon matchup between Todoni and Gauff is one tennis fans get used to watching. Both players are likely to be playing well into the 2030s and potentially battling each other for Grand Slam victories. Gauff has elite athleticism and can hit with pace, though her serve is inconsistent. Todoni has scary easy power, though she doesn’t know what she doesn’t know yet – she doesn’t have enough match experience.

Coco Gauff gets by Anca Todoni in the second round at Wimbledon 2024
To start the match, Gauff looked like she might win with ease. Against the bombastic serve of Todoni, the American broke serve in the first game with ease. Then she held, and again, with ease. Todoni then settled down a bit and began to hit with more surety and confidence. She was almost about to break back in the fourth game of the first set, but Gauff managed to serve.

This happened even though Todoni was beginning to hit stunning forehands with immense force. Normally, Gauff can chase down anything, but at times was powerless to try to get her racket on the ball. One of Gauff’s strengths, however, is keeping her cool and poise and she simply plays better in the bigger moments of matches than most other players do.

After managing to hold, Gauff then broke Todoni again to get the first set to 4-1 and the eventual outcome of the match did not seem to be in doubt anymore. The American simply had too much experience winning pressure matches and Todoni still needs to find her way and Gauff took the match 6-2 6-1. Plus, she needs to learn to play with some better touch which she has not had to learn yet because her power has been too much for most of her opponents.

Anca Todoni is going to be very good one day. Coco Gauff is already there and is a real threat to get her second Grand Slam title by winning Wimbledon. She now moves into the third round and will play either Clara Burel or Sonay Kartal.