Andy Roddick says what he’s just seen in Coco Gauff’s game which he hasn’t spotted since she won the US Open in 2023

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Andy Roddick is impressed by what he is seeing from Coco Gauff at the moment.

Following her exit from the Australian Open in January, the 21-year-old struggled during the Middle East and the North American hard court swing.

But the 21-year-old has begun to revitalise her season after hitting the European clay courts. She has since reached the Madrid final and now quarter-finals at the Italian Open.

Gauff is aiming to go even further at the Foro Italico and try and claim her first title of the season, and Andy Roddick hopes she continues doing what she is doing.

Andy Roddick says Coco Gauff is doing something for the first time since the 2023 US Open

Coco Gauff looked out of sorts in the three months between losing at the Australian Open and before she arrived in Madrid.

At one point she lost three successive matches in Melbourne, Qatar and Dubai, before failing to go beyond the fourth round on home soil at Indian Wells and Miami.

But Gauff is revitalising her season on clay and is playing with a level of control that Roddick says he has not seen from her since her run to the 2023 US Open title.

“It used to be where she would play a defensive forehand or almost commit before the match where you are seeing the high looping ones or make hay and flatten it out Jim Courier style,” Gauff told Tennis Channel live.

“Now it feels like the Andy Murray mould, where she is opening up the shoulders and going to the forehand, then she is opening up the shoulders and going up the line. But she is setting the table.

“She is establishing that one to the right side of her opponent’s body early and then that opens up the other options.

“Also once she opens up that one down the line, that traffic is going back to her backhand. And I feel like she is in total control of her game, maybe for the first time since she won the US Open.”

Who is Coco Gauff’s next opponent?

Gauff will take on Mirra Andreeva for a spot in the Italian Open semi-finals.

The pair played just a fortnight ago in Madrid, and Gauff claimed victory and extended her undefeated streak against the teenager to three matches.

Andreeva is having a special season after winning back-to-back titles in Indian Wells and Dubai, which made her a top 10 player for the first time.

Roddick’s Tennis Channel live co-host Jim Courier was asked who he thinks will emerge victorious in Wednesday’s quarter-final, but it was too close for him to call.

“I don’t know. This is a hard one to pick,” Courier said. “Mirra is fearless and Coco is proving to be so tough. She has faced a lot of adversity this season, so my gut does not really have a feel on this one.”