Coco Gauff has been defended by Belinda Bencic after playing her at the Miami Open.
Gauff reached the Miami Open final last week, where she beat the likes of Karolina Muchova, Sorana Cirstea and Bencic, before losing to Aryna Sabalenka.
This was a resurgent week for Gauff, whose serve continues to be assessed following her struggles in recent years.
Despite there still being concerns about Gauff and her serve, Bencic believes that she should not be receiving as much criticism as she does.
Belinda Bencic says Coco Gauff’s serve is actually ‘very good’
Bencic and Gauff actually had a fallout last year, but all appears to be well between the two players after their meeting in the quarterfinal of the Miami Open.
When speaking to Christian’s Court ahead of the Charleston Open, Bencic was full of praise for Gauff, claiming that her serve is actually ‘very good’ and that insisted that she does not deserve all the negative comments she receives about her game.
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“Yes, I think she’s very tough as well,” Bencic said about Gauff. “We had some great matches every time we played and it’s really admirable how she moves. You definitely feel like the court is much smaller, you know. I like to attack of course, and she makes it very hard, she makes you overplay balls in the end.
“Her serve is also very tough, I know she gets a lot of comments and this and that, but her serve is very good, and it’s very fast when she puts it in.
“Of course, sometimes you can have some problems with the rhythm and everything, but I don’t think she should get so much negative comments, because her game is very unique and very different rhythm, change of spins, speeds and rhythm, and really can play anywhere on the court. Also moving great, so she’s a very deserved number three, number four in the world.”
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Coco Gauff’s serve statistics at the Miami Open
Gauff beat Bencic 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 at the Miami Open last week, in one of her better serving performances of the tournament.
It was the only match of the Miami Open where Gauff hit more aces than double faults, despite it actually being the match where she hit the lowest percentage of first serves in court.
Double faults continue to be a big concern for Gauff, as she has already hit 162 in 2026, which is an average of over seven per match and 50 more than the next highest in Victoria Mboko.
| Coco Gauff’s Serve in Miami | 2R vs Cocciaretto | 3R vs Parks | 4R vs Cirstea | QF vs Bencic | SF vs Muchova | F vs Sabalenka |
| Aces | 2 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Double Faults | 11 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| First Serve % | 69% | 60% | 74% | 58% | 64% | 67% |
| First Serve Win % | 77% | 68% | 66% | 76% | 77% | 66% |
| Second Serve Win % | 31% | 47% | 29% | 33% | 35% | 47% |
| Games Broken | 4 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 4 |
Gauff will now look ahead to the clay court season, where the serve is generally less of a weapon for most players.
The American had a very successful clay court season last year and therefore Gauff has over 3,000 points to defend, which is more than any other player on the WTA Tour.
Gauff will begin her clay court season at the WTA 500 tournament in Stuttgart, which gets underway on April 13.
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