Coco Gauff’s serving nightmares are showing no sign of ending, as she threw in 11 double faults in her latest match at the Miami Open.
After she was forced to retire from her match against Alex Eala in Indian Wells last week, the French Open champion was a long way short of her best as she fought back to beat Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Gauff struggled throughout the match and was a break behind in the final set before battling back to beat an opponent who got the better of her in Qatar last month.
“She takes the ball so early, you don’t have a lot of time to react,” said Gauff. “Once I got adjusted to the tempo, I felt like I could control the rallies when they went longer.
“Last time we played I didn’t win, so I wanted to overcome that feeling. This week made me realise how much I love this sport. Even when it’s tough, I enjoy the ups and downs of the journey.”
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This was a far from convincing performance from Gauff, with her serving problems highlighted by one second serve that hit the top of her frame and nearly landed in the crowd.
There were gasps of despair at times from the sparse crowd in attendance as some of Gauff’s serves landed well short and her remodelled forehand also looked a little dijoined at times.
Her battling qualities shone through as she found a way to win, with former world No 4 and 1997 US Open finalist Greg Rusedski suggesting her serving problems are now a mental problem rather than a technical issue.
Speaking on his Off Court with Greg Rusedski podcast, one of the great servers in tennis in the 1990s offered up some candid views.
“I think it’s more mental now because everybody’s talking about it,” said Rusedski. “Sometimes when you have a weakness in your game, everybody’s talking about serve, serve. For me it was return, return, return of serve.
“That gets into your psyche and then you start thinking about it and trying too hard and then it takes away from the rest of your game. So what she has to do is yes, keep working on the serve, stop talking about it and just keep on improving the rest of your other parts of your game.”
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Rusedski is surprised the serving problems have not been solved by Gauff, as he claimed the issues were not hugely challenging to iron out.
“It’s something that’s not a huge change with the throwing position and getting the timing and getting the balance, but it’s also a mindset towards it and mentally getting over.
“It’s like Aryna Sabalenka. She has the same serving coach that Sabalenka had she said, look, I’m going to take ownership of this and I’m going to take responsibility of my own serve. Great to have this guy helping me out, but at end of the day, it comes down to me under pressure.
“And that’s what Coco’s got to get back to because mentally she won the French Open last year in a hurricane and just mentally staying there.
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