Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports

Coco Gauff Makes Major Coaching Move Days Before US Open

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Wendi Oliveros | Last updated Aug 20, 2025 2:20 PM ET

Coco Gauff, the 2025 French Open champion, arrived at Wednesday's open US Open practice at Arthur Ashe Stadium with a surprising coaching change.

While hitting with Elina Svitolina at a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium practice, news broke that Gauff parted ways with Matt Daly and JC Faurel. Daly served as her coach since September 2024. Faurel worked with her in her formative years thr ough 2020 and rejoined the team in Spring 2024.

Making a significant change days before a Grand Slam is definitely unusual.

Though ESPN and other outlets are reporting that both Daly and Faurel are out, there was a confusing piece to the story.

Christopher Eubanks, Gauff's friend, a player and ESPN contributor, was interviewed as the news broke, and he hinted that Faurel was still on board, but that does not appear to be the case.

Coco Gauff's New Coach Is No Stranger to the WTA Tour

The 21-year-old star's new coach is a familiar face on the WTA Tour. He previously worked with Aryna Sabalenka. His name is Gavin McMillan.

McMillan, whose official title is biomedical trainer, is expected to help Gauff with all elements of her game, particularly the serve, which has been a bit of an Achilles' heel for her lately. He is credited with helping Sabalenka fix her serve years ago when she struggled with accuracy and double-faults.

2023 US Open champ and 2025 French Open champ Coco Gauff is parting ways with her coaches Matt Daly and JC Faurel and replacing them with Gavin McMillan, per ESPN

Gauff has been struggling with her serve. pic.twitter.com/BLRtpMgZf7
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) August 20, 2025

Gauff's bold coaching change was on display at the public practice on Wednesday, August 20. McMillan was spotted making suggestions to Gauff.

McMillan had more one-on-one time with Gauff as practice moved to an outside court. The two continued to work as rain fell.

The work has begun between Coco Gauff and Gavin Macmillan! pic.twitter.com/bDJZdHxK9v
— Brenner Morton (@simonsaystennis) August 20, 2025

Though young and hugely successful as a two-time Grand Slam singles, a Grand Slam doubles champion and WTA Finals champion, she is competitive and motivated to improve and is unafraid of making significant changes to do so.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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