Coco Gauff beats Belinda Bencic and Wimbledon curfew to reach quarterfinals for first time

THE ALL ENGLAND CLUB, London — Coco Gauff beat Belinda Bencic — and the strict 11 p.m. Wimbledon curfew — to reach a first quarterfinal at the All England Club Sunday night.

With an unreturned serve on the final point of a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win, Gauff tapped her wrist as if it were a watch, serving out the victory just two minutes before the deadline.

The curfew was introduced in 2009, when the All England Club installed a retractable roof on Centre Court. That meant that play could go on later, but local residents — and their council — did not want fans streaming past their houses in the early hours. The No. 1 Court roof, under which Gauff and Bencic started play at 8:39 p.m., was not completed until 2019.

“The 11pm curfew is a planning condition applied to balance the consideration of the local residents with the scale of an international tennis event that takes place in a residential area,” Merton Council said.

“The challenge of transport connectivity and getting visitors home safely is also a key consideration.”

At 11 p.m., play stops. Just once in recent history has the tournament made an exception, when Andy Murray beat Marcos Baghdatis in four sets at 11:02 p.m in 2012. The clock had struck 11 with Murray up 5-1 in the fourth set and about to serve for the match. “Common sense,” tournament organizers said at the time, was the driver behind a two-minute extension on one of the strictest rules in sports.

Gauff was not about to let it get in her way.

The No. 1 Court crowd serenaded her with chants of ‘Coco, Coco!’ as Gauff jumped around the grass when it was over, delighted and relieved in equal measure. Gauff described the win as the “most dramatic finish” to a match she’d been involved in during her on-court interview, and joked that after battling the clock for one night only, she was glad she didn’t choose basketball.

This was a match in which she had played with the right approach from the start, attacking Bencic at every opportunity and not letting her head drop after losing a first set that she probably should have won.

At least it was partly a consequence of Gauff going after her serve, regularly hitting it at around 120 mph. The issue was that Gauff’s other problem shot, the forehand, was starting to malfunction.

After Bencic fended off a couple of break points that would have left her 4-0 down, and instead held serve for 3-1, she began to zone in on the Gauff forehand. On grass, tennis’ lowest surface, it tends to be at its most exposed. A double fault in the next game to give up a break was also a reminder of how unsustainable it is to hit them with such regularity.

But even with her serve under pressure, Gauff had two break points for a 5-3 lead that would have given her the chance to serve out the set. Instead, after missing the first one, she made three consecutive forehand errors and the chance was gone.

In the next game, Gauff was too tentative with the shot, and Bencic was still able to break and then serve out the set 6-4. The final game typified Gauff’s struggles, as she saved a couple of set points brilliantly but let Bencic off the hook with yet another netted forehand. She ended the set with 14 forehand unforced errors, compared to three on the backhand side, plus six double faults.

Gauff, to her credit, continued to play on the front foot in the second set, and earned a break for 3-1 with a deep forehand return that Bencic couldn’t handle. Almost inevitably though, she was broken straight back to love, Bencic once again refusing to go away.

But unlike in the early stages, Gauff was able to accelerate away from her opponent this time and claim the set. A pair of brilliant backhands earned her a break point for 4-2, and the forehand stood up to a barrage from Bencic to grab it. Gauff was then able to serve out the set 6-3, a clever lob volley wrapping it up. After the error-strewn first set, Gauff just made three unforced on each wing, compared to Bencic’s eight on the forehand side and three with the backhand.

Gauff had the momentum and looked like she might ride it all the way to victory, breaking straight away in the decider and then holding for 2-0. She was up 0-30 in the next game, but a turning point arrived when Bencic hit a brilliant forehand pass down the line to get to 30-30. Buoyed by digging out the hold a couple of points later, Bencic broke back for 2-2. As the clock ticked toward the deadline, the players were producing some staggeringly good rallies, Gauff somehow redirecting a Bencic volley that was heading straight for her chest for a winner.

Gauff broke again and held for 4-2, before forcing a break point for 5-2 that would have left her on the brink of victory. Instead after a long game, Bencic held for 4-3, and at 10:47 p.m., the match was still on a knife-edge.

After the pair traded holds Gauff came out to serve for the match at 10:55 p.m., knowing she had just five minutes to get the job done. She only needed three.

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