The former World No. 1, Belgian icon, has recently shared her thoughts on Coco Gauff’s serving limitations and her double faults, which she leads on the WTA Tour. The World No. 4 also faced the same hindrances during her semifinal against Elina Svitolina at the Dubai Tennis Championships, which she eventually lost, and had made 12 double faults.
Hall of Famer Reflects on Coco Gauff’s Struggles With Serve and Double Faults
Gauff has wrapped up her Middle East Swing with facing an early exit at the WTA 1000 Qatar Open, as she lost the round of 64 to the former World No. 29 Elisabetta Cocciaretto. At the WTA 1000 Dubai Tennis Championships, she defeated World No. 23 Anna Kalinskaya, Elise Mertens, and 20-year-old Alexandra Eala, and clashed with the seventh-seeded Svitolina in the semifinals.
Their fierce battle saw Gauff lose the first set, win the second and her longest tiebreaker, and lose the third, 6-4, 6-7 (13), 6-4, in 3 hours and 3 minutes. The match also saw the American committing multiple double faults, struggling with her serving, and addressing her frustration with her biomechanics coach, Gavin MacMillan, with whom she has been working since last year, after making a double fault in the second set, adding, “I’ve been doing everything you’ve wanted for the last 6 months.”
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Gauff’s struggles with her serve and double faults were recently brought to light by the Hall of Famer, Kim Clijsters, during an episode of her “Love All” podcast. The winner of 41 WTA singles titles and 11 doubles, including four singles majors and two doubles majors, revealed that there is a heavy focus on Gauff’s shortcomings, while she serves skilfully.
She mentioned, “People and the media and commentators at times, too, like there’s so much focus on her serve right now that when she serves a double fault, everybody like, jumps on it right away. For her, mentally, you can only avoid it so much right, it is being looked at as a weakness and it is at times but she at times serves really good as well.”
Clijsters continued, “I’m very intrigued about the fact that why at times she, the double fault kind of build up. So, a lot of times it’s your mind, there’s that pressure of the score and everything but also to be ready for the next shot, to be ready for the return. The mental side of it, right, where the focus and you start to doubt, your shot more and more, and it becomes an obsession to try and fix it.”
Apart from this, the Belgian icon also recalled that Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert, once shared, considering her double faults, that when they went practising after a match where she made these faults, she didn’t make any during that, which could signal, as Clijsters highlighted, a problem of a mental side rather than issues in her form.