Coco Gauff makes a return to Dayana Yastremska during their first round women's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London on Tuesday. (AP photo)

LONDON (AP) — Last year’s runner-up Jasmine Paolini became the fourth top-five seed to exit the women’s bracket at Wimbledon, losing 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday to unseeded Kamilla Rakhimova in the second round.

The fourth-seeded Paolini joins No. 2 Coco Gauff, No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 5 Zheng Qinwen in making a quick departure from the All England Club, with the other three having all lost in the first round.

A total of 23 seeds — 13 men, 10 women — failed to get to the second round, equaling the highest total at any Grand Slam tournament since they began assigning 32 seeds in each singles bracket in 2001.

The upsets kept coming in the women’s bracket Wednesday, with No. 12-seeded Diana Shnaider losing 6-4, 6-1 to Diane Parry and No. 22 Donna Vekic, who lost to Paolini in the semifinals last year, going out 6-1, 6-3 to Cristina Busca.

Paolini lost in the final of both the French Open and Wimbledon last year but has not been past the fourth round in the four majors since.

Rakhimova is making her second Wimbledon appearance, having lost in the first round in 2023. In all, the 23-year-old Russian has only made the third round twice in 13 previous majors.

This was her first win against a top-10 ranked player.

“I try not to think about the opponent and try to focus on my game. It worked for me,” Rakhimova said. “I just pretend like I’m playing a normal girl, not the No. 4 in the world.”

Guaff expresses

disappointment

Before Wimbledon began, Coco Gauff reflected on the significance of her breakthrough performance at the place six years ago — a run to the fourth round at age 15 — and what aspirations she harbored as she prepared to return.

“Even when I see videos of me during that time, it just doesn’t feel like it’s me. It felt like a dream. I’ll always have special memories from that run and, I guess, it definitely fueled the belief that I can be on tour and live out my dream,” she told The Associated Press.

“It’s something that always holds a special place in my heart. Obviously, I would love to win this tournament just for it to be like a full-circle moment,” she continued. “I feel like it would be like the start of the dream, and — I don’t want to say ‘the finish,’ because I obviously have a lot of career left, but — a full-circle type of situation.”

A week after that conversation, the No. 2-ranked Gauff was out of the bracket at the All England Club in the first round with a 7-6 (3), 6-1 loss to unseeded Dayana Yastremska at No. 1 Court on Tuesday night. Gauff was undone by serving troubles, including nine double-faults, and more than two dozen unforced errors in all, not to mention Yastremska’s hard, flat groundstrokes.

It was an abrupt, and mistake-filled, exit for Gauff, who so recently earned her second Grand Slam title — at the French Open via a three-set victory over No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

After Tuesday’s defeat, Gauff said, “I definitely was struggling in the locker room. I don’t like losing. The main thing I’m sure my team and everyone is going to tell me (is): ‘You did well at Roland-Garros. Don’t be so upset.’ Things like that.”

But as much as she’ll want to move on and focus on what’s to come, the 21-year-old American acknowledged as she dabbed away the tears welling in her eyes during her news conference that she felt “a little bit disappointed in how I showed up today.”