Coco Gauff failed to successfully defend her US Open title after being knocked out in the fourth round by Emma Navarro.
Gauff clinched her one and only Grand Slam title to date at the 2023 US Open, where she beat Aryna Sabalenka.
The American was the sixth seed back then, and was forced to come from behind to beat the second seed 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
But no such heroics were on display from the third-seed this time around, with the American losing 3-6, 6-4, 3-6 to compatriot Navarro.
Plenty of questions have been asked of Gauff following her exit, with both her serving and coach Brad Gilbert coming under the spotlight in particular.
What has Andy Roddick made of Coco Gauff and Brad Gilbert?
Tennis fans want Gauff to split with Gilbert, while Navarro was ‘really aggressive’ on Gauff’s second serve, which put pressure on the defending champion.
Andy Roddick, who won the US Open in 2003, has now shared his thoughts on Gauff’s current situation, saying on the latest episode of Served With Andy Roddick: “Coco, I didn’t choose her to go far based on recent form. She acknowledged the serving problems, yips, in her press conference and said it’s fine in practice, get out there and it’s not.
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“I don’t know, I feel like this has been such a whirlwind for her. There is no doubt that the second serve is in her head. I know Brad would tell me the same thing, not because he has, but because he would.
“It’s a lot of expectation, especially when you are trying to work through things. The spotlight doesn’t really doesn’t matter if you’re feeling great and confident, it’s just this thing you have to deal with.
“You go out there and the rumbles and mumbles when you hit 10 or 11 double faults in one set, those become a lot louder when there is 25,000 people doing it.”
Andy Roddick says why Coco Gauff’s US Open exit isn’t necessarily bad
Gauff stunned the world of tennis with her 2023 US Open success, with the American continuing to ride that wave into 2024.
She made the semi-finals of the Australian Open and French Open, but the 20-year-old’s form then started to deteriorate.
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A disappointing fourth round exit was suffered at Wimbledon, with Gauff then failing to impress at the Olympics, Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open.
But her latest failure is not necessarily bad according to Roddick, who added: “I feel like Coco needed to get out of this tournament, not as in not play or try, she always gives all her effort and is fighting some demons right now, but she needed to get past this tournament and the defence of it to reset and rebuild.
“She has so many things that you can’t take away. She is the most elite mover on tour. The ball shape on the forehand, I would like to see her completely sell out and find more shape all the time, rather than thinking she has to hit as big as Sabalenka all the time.
“If she hits that looper it drives traffic to that backhand, that’s where she wants to be. It’s how to get those patterns that she wants. The second serve has to come further left, it’s something I worked on with her and did a couple of sessions with her, and I do think she is capable of becoming an elite server.
“She is a top three server in the world, she just doesn’t know it yet. She has 125mph in her arm, there needs to be some balance between a 72mph second serve and 105mph.
“I am totally fine with 85mph in the middle of the box when you are struggling, there needs to be a default setting that is a catch-all.”
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