I want it to be a weapon": Coco Gauff opens up about her serve and doubts
Despite a frustrating semifinal in Beijing, Coco Gauff remains focused. In the midst of technical reconstruction, the American champion delivered a lucid and inspiring speech about her serve, mentality, and ambitions ahead of Wuhan.
Still searching for an effective serve, Coco Gauff hired Gavin McMillan, a biomechanics expert, in August. However, the American coach is absent during this Asian tour due to other professional commitments.
An absence that is certainly felt by the Roland-Garros winner, who struggled immensely with her serve during her semifinal loss to Amanda Anisimova in Beijing.
Arriving in Wuhan this Monday, the American assures that she is working hard to improve in this area:
"I felt very comfortable with my serve. I'm still learning a new motion and everything else, but Beijing was a good tournament regarding my serve.
Of course, there were moments when I could have served better, but I didn't feel like my serve was a handicap. In my last match, she (Anisimova) was returning really well. The percentage of points won behind the first serve was low, but I was hitting serves at 200km/h and she was returning them much faster.
[...] So I think I'm on the right track. I'm not yet where I want to be, but I really feel like I'm making progress. I think now I just need to have confidence in those moments. But, you know, I'm still making more double faults than I'd like.
I want it to be a real weapon - and it is at times - but I think it needs to be a more consistent weapon.
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What she's saying here is not good at all. You may not agree with me if you only keep to the surface of her words.
But her interview is deeply troubling on two accounts.
One, while she's sugar coating it to the max, she's, actually, saying that hiring that new coach was a disaster and hasn't brought any improvements to her serve. She's saying she's still in the same serve nightmare as before.
The other thing that's obvious is that hiring this bio mechanic coach could potentially ruin her career. You may totally not agree with me. But just track her performance from now until Roland Garros next year and then talk to me. Hiring a coach who is an expert in serving, one who helped saba, and who was going to turn your career around, but the fact that it hasn't worked and especially since she's admitting that it hasn't worked... WHOA. It's looking really bad for coco. Nothing against her. I wish her well. But she might be done and she might well be on a downward curve from here on.
I wouldn't be surprised if she ranks around number 10 by the time Wimbledon comes next year.