Coco Gauff admits making changes to service during a season is a very tricky thing to handle because it is not easy to work on something and try to correct it while you are actively competing and trying to win matches.
Over the past couple of months, there has been a lot of talk about the American’s serving woes. And after the US Open, the 20-year-old split with Brad Gilbert and hired Matt Daly.
Since hiring Daly, Gauff has already made slight changes to her serve, specifically a change to her grip on her serve.
During the Asian swing, the world No. 3 won Beijing and was a semifinalist in Wuhan. There, she tried her new serve – and while it wasn’t perfect and there were still matches when she would struggle and blast unforced double faults – the experiment still went fairly well.
Gauff: It’s not easy but you have got to think long-term…
“I have made a change with that. Yeah, obviously it’s difficult. You do something you know one way for your whole life basically. Actually, I wouldn’t say my whole life. I definitely think I migrated as time went on. But it was for a long time. You kind of have to correct it, and you’re playing matches. Everything just feels fresh and new. It is difficult, but you got to think of the long-term and the long run. I feel like this is the right decision. When it was going well, it was going really well. Yeah, I think I just need more time with it. I spent two weeks at home working on it. Yeah, we’ll see how it goes here,” the 2023 US Open champion explained in Riyadh when asked if she made any changes to her serve and how difficult it was.
Meanwhile, Gauff opens her WTA Finals campaign on Sunday by taking on Jessica Pegula.