Rennae Stubbs shares her take on Gauff’s struggles after the American’s US Open round-of-16 exit.
Coco Gauff’s serving display during a surprise US Open round-of-16 loss to Emma Navarro left many baffled and it even led to Serena Williams’ ex-coach Rennae Stubbs criticizing the 20-year-old in front of her coach Brad Gilbert.
On Sunday, the No. 3 seed’s title defense at Flushing Meadows came to an end after the 12th-ranked American won 6-3 4-6 6-3.
During the match, one of the most noticeable things was the 2023 US Open champion’s struggles on her own serve. And after Gauff hit a shocking 19 double faults and made less than 50 percent of her first serve and won just 40 percent of points played on her second serve, fans but also some of the former stars were left wondering what was happening with the six-time WTA champion’s serve.
What’s worse is the fact that this has been a regular occurrence throughout the summer and that’s a big reason why she picked up round-of-16 exits at Wimbledon, the Paris Olympics and New York.
After the match, Stubbs – who won four Grand Slams in women’s doubles and two in mixed doubles – was on an ESPN panel discussing the Gauff loss and coach Gilbert was there as well.
“Where is Coco’s confidence? There’s no second serve, that’s the sign. And that’s a problem. So under pressure, bad technique breaks down and her technique is…hard for me to say because Brad [Gilbert] is sitting here…but her technique, the elbow, is too low, the grip is a little weird as well. So it’s hard for her to get that nice first serve and then the same or similar second serve,” Stubbs said on ESPN.
Will Gauff make some moves?
The American’s case is slowly starting to resemble the one of Aryna Sabalenka from 2022. Two years ago, the Belarusian tennis star started to mightily struggle on her serve as she was blasting double faults and it became crystal clear that she probably needed to address her technique but to also do something that would help with it on the mental plan.
And the 26-year-old Belarusian then made a move that has since become famous in the tennis circles – she hired a biomechanics coach to help her. Not only that Sabalenka resolved the issue to the fullest, but she also became a Grand Slam champion a few months later at the 2023 Australian Open.
Following her US Open exit, Gauff was directly asked if she could pull that move as well.
“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 30 serves in a row. I’ve done it before. I think it’s 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 don’t want to lose matches like this anymore,” the two-time Grand Slam finalist said.
The 20-year-old then also identified what was the exact problem with her serve.
“I go down on my left side a lot on my serve, and it’s something I’m aware of, but it’s tough in the moment to I guess try not to do it,” she explained.
Nick Kyrgios made an offer to Gauff
After the American’s lackluster serving performance and an upset loss, some started calling for her to fire coach Gilbert. And that led to one fan suggesting that the 20-year-old should turn to Kyrgios for help, considering that everyone knows that the Australian is the best of the best when it comes to that aspect. The 2022 Wimbledon finalist noticed that post and responded: “I’d coach her.”
Meanwhile, Gauff made it clear after another disappointing exit at a big event that she is fed up with losing matches that she feels she should absolutely be winning.
“I guess for me, yeah, it’s not the summer that I want. I feel like there’s, like, 70 other players in the draw that would love to have the summer that I had even though it’s my least probably done well during this time of the year. So many people want to be in the fourth round. So many people want to make the Olympics. So many people want to be flag bearer. It’s perspective. Obviously because I’m wanting to reach a different level, it is disappointing, but I’m not going to beat myself up and be, like, this was so bad. Yeah, I expect better, but at the end of the day it happened, and I know I can turn it around,” Gauff explained.
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