Coco Gauff has been given sage advice by renowned coach Rick Macci as he believes her troubled serve can easily be corrected.
The American appeared to have fixed her problematic serve during her incredible 2023 North American hard-court swing when she won the Cincinnati Open and the US Open.
But a year later she once again struggled on serve with it being particularly problematic during her fourth-round defeat to Emma Navarro at the US Open as she sent down 19 doubles faults.
After the tournament Gauff parted company with Brad Gilbert and appointed Matt Daly as her new coach ahead of her trip to Asia.
There were signs of improvement during her title run at the China Open with many believing a change in her grip was key to her success in Beijing.
Ahead of her Wuhan Open semi-final against Aryna Sabalenka, Gauff commented about the new grip, stating: “I don’t want to give too much of what’s going on, but there are changes happening. I’ve been playing with them… since Beijing.”
But then it all went awry against Sabalenka as she served 21 double faults, including one on match point as she lost 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, with that tally a 2024 WTA Tour record.
It will be back to the drawing board for Gauff and her coaching team, but Macci – who was tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams’ childhood coach and also had stints mentoring the likes of Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova – believes biomechanics expert will fix her problems quickly.
“Coco and her second serve can be fixed in less than one hour. Once that is biomechanically rewired and that is in the EYE of the BEHOLDER the mental game overall becomes BOLDER,” he wrote on X.
Macci previously stated that Gauff’s serve “needs minor reconstruction surgery based on scientific principles as it is an easy fix”.
Hiring a biomechanics coach would see Gauff follow in Sabalenka’s footsteps as the three-time Grand Slam winner turned her game around following a nightmare 2022 season.
Sabalenka served more than 400 double faults that season, but started working with a biomechanics expert late in the year and by the start of the following year her problem was fixed as she went on to win the Australian Open.
Asked after this year’s US Open defeat if she would consider going down that route, Gauff said: “For sure. Yeah, I definitely want to get other opinions.
“Because, you know – and also I think it’s sometimes more of an emotional, mental thing because if I go out on the practice court right now, I would make, like, 30 serves in a row. I’ve done it before.”