Serena Williams’ former coach has told Coco Gauff exactly what she must do if she is to fix her serving woes.
This has been a longstanding and well-documented problem for the top-ranked American, with her matches routinely being dragged into long, arduous battles despite her overwhelming quality.
The 21-year-old is undeniably one of the game’s top players, exhibited perfectly in her run to the French Open title earlier this year.
She is a rock-solid warrior with a dangerous backhand and lovely touch. However, these elements, whilst enough to cause problems when returning, do not help her when she is instantly put on the back foot when serving herself.
Fortunately, Rick Macci has both advice and a promise for Coco Gauff.
Serena Williams’ former coach gives Coco Gauff serving advice
Taking to X, he insisted that, with the correct alterations, she can have ‘the best serve on tour’.
However, it will not be easy, with Macci actually seemingly suggesting that Gauff take a page out of Aryna Sabalenka’s book.
She admitted to having biomechanically re-engineered her serve whilst struggling a few years ago, and is now the most feared woman on the WTA.
Macci insists: “It is not the toss head or a vanilla correction it is because there is an improper disconnection.” As such, there will only be a fix when ‘the reflexes are reprogrammed from the ground up’.
Given how he spearheaded the early development of both Serena and Venus Williams, his advice might be one worth taking.
Next, Victoria Mboko will face Gauff, with the Canadian hoping to upset her American opponent and take advantage of this glaring weakness.
How has Coco Gauff’s serve been during the Canadian Open?
Naturally, this debate has arisen once again because Gauff’s serve is struggling at the Canadian Open.
We are just two matches in, and both have been reduced to long, scrappy affairs against players that she could, and probably should, be beating with ease.
Instead, first Danielle Collins and more recently Veronika Kudermetova have taken her into a deciding third set.
Whilst her first serve is not overtly letting her down, it’s once again the second which remains the issue, getting just 61.5% of them in, and losing 42.7% of points on that second serve.
If she is not double-faulting, they are coming back at her with flames, putting Gauff under instant pressure before the point has even begun.
Crucially, she is serving at a worrying 18.5 double faults per match. Hopefully she can find some kind of short-term solution for the rest of this event, before taking a closer look at a real fix after the Canadian Open.
