Coco Gauff was having a really difficult time against Emma Navarro at Centre Court, and she kept checking her guest box in hopes of getting assistance from her coaches. Brad Gilbert was the one who would get up and make gestures, and they would exchange words, but no solution was found.

Gauff has never advanced past the fourth round at Wimbledon, and she lost to Navarro 6-4, 6-3 in an all-American match on Sunday, her second consecutive tournament departure.

“We had a game plan going in, and I felt that it wasn’t working. I don’t always ask for advice from the box, but today was one of those moments where I felt like I didn’t have solutions,” said Gauff, the No. 2 seed at the All England Club and the defending US Open winner. “Mentally, it was a lot going on, and I felt like I wanted more direction.”

Hers was the most recent in a string of elite women’s withdrawals from the Wimbledon draw this year, which also included the loss of No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek on Saturday, the withdrawal of No. 3 seed Aryna Sabalenka due to a shoulder injury, and the first-round loss of No. 6 seed Marketa Vondrousova.

There are now just two of the top ten ranked women left: No. 4 Elena Rybakina, the 2022 champion, and No. 7 Jasmine Paolini, the former French Open runner-up who will face Navarro. After Madison Keys withdrew from the tournament due to an injury on Sunday, Paolini advanced and Rybakina will play her fourth-round match on Monday.

When Navarro defeated four-time major champion Naomi Osaka in the second round, she demonstrated exactly the kind of tennis she is capable of playing.

“I don’t have a ton of words,” remarked the 23-year-old, ranked 19th. She was raised in South Carolina and led Virginia to an NCAA title.

“I played really aggressively. Coco’s obviously an amazing player. I have a ton of respect for her and what she’s done at such a young age is really amazing. I knew she wasn’t going to make it easy on me tonight,” Navarro advanced to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event. Navarro said. “But I wanted to play aggressively and push back against her game and I think I was able to do that.”

Gauff, 20, of Florida, won the trophy from New York in September and has also finished second in the French Open and advanced to the semifinals of the Australian Open.

Gauff never has surpassed that performance, even though it was her first major break through at the All England Club at the age of 15, where she overcame Venus Williams in the first round to advance to the fourth and become the youngest qualifier in tournament history.

In her subsequent appearance, in 2021, she similarly lost in the fourth round. A year later, in 2022, she lost in the third round.

Gauff continued to make blunders on Sunday; in the end, they committed more than twice as many unintentional errors—25—as the winners—12. The shot that opponents know is Gauff’s weakness—the forehand—was her biggest problem.

Navarro continued striking that side, and it was effective.

Gauff committed 16 unintentional forehand errors and another 16 intentional ones, which accounted for 32 of Navarro’s 61 total points.

“I have the ability to raise my level when players play well, and I feel I didn’t do that today,” Gauff stated.

“They usually gave me something,” she said, recalling that in the past when she had asked her coaches for a midmatch assist, but “today, I don’t think we were all in sync.”

“It’s no one’s fault but me,” Gauff declared. “I’m the player out there.”