Coco Gauff lauded for introducing new serve coach after courageous victory

2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff has been through some tough times since winning Roland Garros. A poor grass season culmulating in a first round exit at Wimbledon has made people worry about her, especially her serve. Despite this, she managed to overpower Ajla Tomljanovic 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 in her opening tie at Flushing Meadows.

Coming into the tournament with the chance to become number one in the world for the maiden time, she had eyes on the US Open title to cement her spot in history. The American just about avoided consecutive major first-round defeats in a valiant performance, showing her experience and determination to get over the line.

After the match, she said: "Honestly, really tough. Honestly, immensely exhausting. But I'm trying. I mean, it wasn't the best today, but you know, at 30-all, it came in when it mattered. But you know, it's an improvement from last week and since. So I think, you know, I'm just trying to improve with each match."

Gauff's serve under scrutiny again

It has been the weak link in Gauff's arsenal recently. With another 10 double faults committed, questions have again started about this downturn in form in one of the most important components of a tennis player's game. To fix this issue, she recently brought in Gavin MacMillan as her new serve coach

Lindsay Davenport, Jim Courier, and Chanda Rubin discussed this on the Tennis Channel, with Davenport citing her technique. "One, we've always looked at her ball toss. Is it too far in front, is it too far to the right to hit a kick serve," she said. "A minor adjustment in last night's match—trying to get it more at 12 o'clock, trying to get it more in the center so she could go up and after it. She's been working with Gavin MacMillan here on court for this whole week. Normally, that stuff is done in private, so even more eyeballs on it causes more people to talk about it. There's an awful lot of stress when you're on the U.S. Open practice courts going over such detailed instruction."

Courier compared the situation to Aryna Sabalenka, who overcame her issues and is now a three-time Grand Slam champion and number one in the world. "Yes, this is a very unique scenario for her," he said. "Only Aryna Sabalenka comes to mind—she did something similar with MacMillan to basically put her career back on track. You can see him really focusing on highly technical stuff. He wants to get the arm in a different position than it was. He looks like he wants her angle of attack—the shoulders—to be a little bit more this way so she can go up at the ball, instead of keeping the shoulders a little flatter when going out at the ball."

He went on to compare it to learning a whole new language, as he said: "Coco mentioned it’s like learning a new language in five days. That sounds like a huge ask. She needs to fix this the way that Sabalenka did. And I think it just shows you what type of competitor Coco is—that she’s willing to do it here, before her most important tournament of the year, in broad daylight—not behind closed doors, where most of these types of changes would be trialed and worked out. I mean, this stuff is living on YouTube forever now. It’s really fascinating.

"Jannick Sinner made a change with his footwork before Wimbledon a couple of years ago. But that was just footwork. Coco's doing different things with her hip, her shoulders, her racquet toss. This is highly complicated stuff. And to put it into practice in real time—I cannot stress enough how much that takes guts. And look, it’s only been a week or slightly more that she’s been working with Gavin MacMillan. Results don’t come overnight."

Positives to take away, but work needed to be done

Rubin looked at the positives in Gauff's performance, stating that a lot went well for her to overcome her tough opponent. "She hit a lot of second serves as first serves—trying to get a little more kick, trying to get a little more margin. And it worked, because she didn’t have as many double-faults. It’s maybe not her normal mindset, so that took some getting used to. And she was dealing with a lot. It is so incredibly difficult to make these kinds of changes the week before a major, a major where you want so badly to do well. I was incredibly impressed with Coco Gauff. She said after the match that she wasn’t great at times. She had some incredible rallies with Ajla Tomljanović. I mean, there was a high level of tennis at times. I think a lot of it got overshadowed by the serve. But there was a lot she could be proud of with how she got through that match."

Davenport revealed that she felt bad for the world number three, with all of the pressure on her and the fact that she is not feeling her best. She said: "You could see her making real-time adjustments—between what she would miss on the first and then what she would do on the second. If you were really looking at her, you could almost see her saying, 'Okay, now I’m going to do this.' She was trying to implement all these changes—between first and second serves. That takes energy out of you as well. My heart really broke when she said that. I mean, she was basically admitting this has been such a tough week. And normally, when you go into a major, you want things to go great. You’re trying to get your player to feel great about themselves. It’s just a little bit of fine-tuning—not such detailed instruction."

Courier added the fact that Gauff has to focus on her technique more, wasting energy on something that normally comes naturally to a top professional. "When players talk about getting into the zone, that spot where they’re just reacting and flowing and feeling tennis—they’re not thinking one bit about technique," he said. "And unfortunately for her, she’s going to have to be thinking about this technique. She has to be super mindful. It’s literally the only thing she’s thinking about, I’m sure, when she sets up to hit a serve. So, she can’t—there’s no way she’s going to play her best tennis in this tournament. No way. But if this works for her—and by the end of this year or by the Australian Open—she no longer has to think about it, and she can get into that flow state. That’s an investment worth making.

"Most people would’ve waited until after this tournament. Maybe sought out some exhibitions to trial it in a low-stakes, low-pressure environment. That’s not Coco Gauff. That’s why she’s going to be one of the game’s greats—because she’s willing to just lay it on the line constantly and fight through it. Frankly, I love it. I admire it."