Coco Gauff remains in contention for Miami Open success after battling into the quarterfinals.
Fourth seed Gauff now takes on 12th seed Belinda Bencic at the Miami Open, where she has reached the quarterfinals for the first time.
It arrives after her round of 16 victory over Sorana Cirstea, who she defeated 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 after one hour and 59 minutes.
And it was a victory that was achieved in no small part by her net play, which was highlighted by WTA legend Martina Navratilova.
Who is the greatest women’s tennis player of all time?
Coco Gauff agrees with Martina Navratilova about playing at the net more
Gauff joined Tennis Channel after the win, where it was put to her: “Martina Navratilova is in the booth with our Chanda Rubin and she just loves when you get to the net.
“Thinks your volleys look so sharp up there. How much of a part of your game do you want to continue emphasizing that?”
She responded: “Yeah I think I should do it more. I think when I played Elina [Svitolina] in Dubai I was coming to the net a lot and was winning most of the points.
“And today I think there were times where I probably should have gotten in a lot more.
“And yeah I think it’s something that I have to remind myself a little bit, because I feel like I’m so used to running from the back, but I’m also pretty quick forward and have a good overhead.
“So I think it’s definitely something I want to incorporate. And yeah, on that match point, I told myself just to go to the net, and sometimes it doesn’t have to be like the most outstanding approach.
“I think I feel like I have to hit like almost a winner to just go to the net, but sometimes it can be kind of in the in-between and I can still make a good volley.”
Coco Gauff thinks she is the fastest WTA player
Fast feet and a well-timed overhead are two key skills to net play, along with anticipation about what kind of shot an opponent is going to play.
And Gauff has now shared insight into one of those aspects, having been asked if foot speed is something she works on, for example through track workouts, or indeed if it is more natural.
“I definitely think it’s natural,” she replied. “But trying to enhance it and I think for me the main focus is more so on the footwork and trying to get better and more efficient with that.
“It’s nowhere near where I want to be, but I think it’s gotten better since when I came on tour. So I think just trying to remember to use the best kind of stance and patterns I think is the main part.
“And then obviously just trying to keep the speed, top speed, and keep being fast. I definitely think I’m the fastest on tour, so I think I want to keep doing that.
“And I think the goal is just to move more efficiently and effectively.”
Prove us wrong…
Coco Gauff should play more doubles to improve her net play
Net play is definitely a skill that Gauff should be focusing on much more, particularly given her serving struggles.
That part of her game often lets her down, especially when it comes to double faults, but it is a problem that could be lessened by more approaches to the net, where she is clearly dangerous.
Of course, it isn’t easy to constantly adopt such an approach, which Gauff has undoubtedly honed thanks to her doubles exploits, which have produced 10 titles.
- 2025 – Montreal (w/Kessler)
- 2024 – Roland Garros (w/Siniakova)
- 2023 – Doha, Miami (both w/Pegula)
- 2022 – Doha, Toronto, San Diego (all w/Pegula)
- 2021 – Parma (w/McNally)
- 2019 – Washington DC, Luxembourg (both w/McNally)
Interestingly, the American has only played doubles in Qatar this year, and in Montreal in August before that, where she clinched the title.
Gauff is clearly a talented player in doubles, which is a format she should be playing in more often to really zone in on improving her volleys, reflexes and overall net play.
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