On Tuesday morning, the seventh-seeded Coco Gauff upset fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula in the Wimbledon quarterfinal: 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Usually, beating a player just three spots higher in the WTA Rankings would not be considered an upset. However, Gauff has historically not played well on grass.But something has clicked for the American superstar. She entered the 2026 Wimbledon Championships having lost three consecutive matches on grass dating back to June 2025. Now, she is one win away from the final. Gauff was asked what changed this year in two different post-match interviews and shared insight into her new mindset.Trust Is KeyOther than her first-round victory against Tamara Korpatsch, all of Gauff's matches at Wimbledon have gone three sets. Moreover, she has dropped the first set in three of the last four matches.Speaking on the main desk of the Tennis Channel, Gauff was asked how she was able to pull off another three-set victory on grass. "I think just trusting myself," said Gauff. "I think Jess is such a tough opponent, and honestly, I have to believe in myself.But I think I would pick her as the favorite, maybe on this surface today. Especially like the way that I started off the tournament, maybe not playing so well, but today I definitely think that I found my rhythm, towards the middle of the second set, and it was smooth sailing from there."Don't RushGauff was asked the same question during her post-match press conference and gave a more in-depth answer. She acknowledged that she had played three tough opponents in a row before explaining a change of pace that has benefited as the matches go on."I just felt like in the first set I was maybe rushing out of some points too early, trying to either get out of the rally or overhead too much. And then towards the end, I just really honed in on my game and realized I don't have to like play a spectacular point every time to win, even though there were some spectacular points. Gauff reiterated the importance of trusting her game, "But I think just trusting myself and trusting like that my ground strokes are good enough and to be with anyone on the surface. And I think my last match against Belinda (Bencic) showed that, and then obviously today against Jess, I think showed that as well."Gauff will face the tenth-seeded Karolina Muchova in the semifinal on Thursday, July 9. The 2026 Wimbledon Championships run through July 12. Stay locked into Sports Illustrated's Serve On SI for all of your tennis news from the court and beyond.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow