Serena Williams' childhood coach Rick Macci has an advice for Coco Gauff, telling the 20-year-old to "experiment" with her serve during the offseason because doing different things could help her get a better understanding of what's the best for her in that regard.
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As you probably know very well, the world No. 3 struggled mightily with her serve in 2024, especially in the second part of the season. In the end, the American tennis star blasted a total of 430 double faults and led the WTA Tour in that department. Since Gauff had 71 clashes this year, that makes it six double faults per match.
During the season, the 2023 US Open champion didn't hide that she was frustrated with her serve and that she would like to address it. Also, she indicated several times that she was willing to hear other opinions and see if something could help.
A couple of days ago, Gauff shared that she kicked her preparations for the 2025 season.
"The time for pros to improve is the offseason. Experiment on the serve since you are in control. Changing from pinpoint to platform or platform to pinpoint could help and understanding that it is counter intuitive regarding the leg drive innates the racquet entry. @CocoGauff," Macci wrote on X.
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Gauff didn't hide her frustration after a poor serving display in a US Open loss
In her return to the US Open as the defending champion, the top-ranked American female tennis player saw her title defense came to an end in the round-of-16 after Emma Navarro handed her a 6-3 4-6 6-3 loss. During the match, the world No. 3 sprayed 19 double faults and the serve letting her down was one of the biggest reasons behind her loss.
Later in her post-match press conference, Gauff acknowledged her serving woes were probably "an emotional, mental thing" before underlining that she was fed up with losing matches that way.
I definitely want to get other opinions because, you know, and also I think its sometimes more of an emotional, mental thing because if I go out on the practice court right now, I would make 30 serves in a row. Ive done it before. I think its also just kind of a mental hurdle that I have to get over when it comes with that. But I definitely want to look at other things because I dont want to lose matches like this anymore," the 20-year-old said after her US Open exit.
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In the same presser, Gauff explained what she thought was the issue.
"I go down on my left side a lot on my serve, and its something Im aware of, but its tough in the moment to I guess try not to do it," she added at the time.
Gauff made a change but then also set a negative record
After failing to defend the US Open title, the former world No. 2 decided to split with coach Brad Gilbert and hire Matt Daly. When she returned to action, she won the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing and also reached the Wuhan semifinal, before losing to Aryna Sabalenka after blasting a stunning 21 double faults during the match. By doing so, Gauff set the record for the most double faults hit in a single WTA match in 2024.
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However, the American tennis star didn't want to be negative afterward. Instead, she highlighted that she recently made some changes and tweaks to her serve and that she needed some time to get it going.
"New things. Yeah, working on a new thing. It's expected. I only had really a week to learn it, then I went to Beijing. I knew it wasn't going to be great. I'm honestly, like, surprised of how well I was able to do with it. We weren't expecting it. So yeah, I mean, overall it's growing pains, ups and downs. Like, vice versa to Beijing. I had a day in between every day to work on it, whereas here it was kind of back-to-back. I think it was progressively just becoming harder because I got used to getting those reps in between the matches in Beijing," Gauff explained after the Sabalenka loss.
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At the WTA Finals in Riyadh - where the American ended up winning it all - she noted that correcting serve or anything else in mid-season was something very challenge.
"You kind of have to correct it, and you're playing matches. Everything just feels fresh and new. It is difficult, but you got to think of the long-term and the long run. I feel like this is the right decision," she said.
It will be interesting to see if Gauff can resolve her serving issues before the start of 2025.
