Coco Gauff’s tenure on the WTA Tour might fool some into forgetting just how young she is.
After all, having first burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old prodigy, beating Venus Williams at Wimbledon, this young American has since converted that talent into two Grand Slam titles and a triumph at the WTA Finals too.
Not to mention that she has accomplished all this by the age of 21, giving her so much time to improve upon these results.
And yet, what is perhaps most ironic about Coco Gauff’s career is how flippantly some are willing to write her off.
Where will Coco Gauff be ranked at the end of the 2026 season?
The 21-year-old boasts an undying spirit and remarkable physicality to pair with her great techniques, but her struggles with the serve and forehand in 2025 have led many to start discounting her title-winning capabilities.
Even Pat Cash has offered a word of warning to Gauff, as she heads to Melbourne ahead of the first major tournament of the year.
Coco Gauff warned by Pat Cash
Speaking to Tennis365, the Australian’s fears centred around Gauff’s decision to hire Gavin MacMillan just last year.
In bringing in the biomechanics coach, famed for his work in building Aryna Sabalenka into the dominant force she is today, the hope was that he too could iron out the issues faced by the world number three.
However, Cash seemed wary that Gauff might not stick with the programme, noting: “Gauff’s serve could have been a five-minute fixing job, but she has taken her years to sort it out.
“I worked alongside Gavin MacMillan as we found a solution to Brandon Nakashima’s serve, and now he has gone on to become this serving guru.”
“As an ex-player, you are selling your intellectual knowledge to a player. You are selling 30 or 40 years of knowledge and experience, and that is invaluable.
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“They pay you a certain amount of money for that, and it needs to be valued, and it’s not at times. They often shoot themselves in the foot by not following through with what they are doing or taking good advice.
“I’ve seen it so many times that players are getting rid of their coach, and we are also seeing it in football, where Chelsea are sacking their manager when they lose a couple of matches. Where has that got them?”
He implored Gauff to commit to a coach for the long term, adding: “Sticking with a coach works, and you look back at the best players in tennis, and they have had success doing that. What we are seeing is a trend of players getting rid of coaches because of a few dollars here or there.
“You give a player all your knowledge and you want them to work with you to consolidate that into a good career. What happens too often is they take that information and off they go. We are seeing that a lot and by and large, it doesn’t work and they shoot themselves in the foot.”
How has Coco Gauff looked so far in 2026?
Thus far, Gauff has only played three matches in 2026, opting to kickstart her new campaign at the United Cup.
This offers a low-stakes and unique format to try out any tweaks to her game, given she has had the opportunity to play both singles and mixed doubles this week.
She is yet to lose in the latter of these disciplines, and despite beating Solana Sierra and Maria Sakkari in singles, it was her shocking loss to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro that caught the eye.
After all, there we saw the worst of the youngster again, as the two sets she lost were by a 6-1 and 6-0 margin.
There, she hit 14 double faults and won just 19% behind her second serve.
It’s clear that, whilst Gauff is still an elite-level player, those kinks are yet to be truly ironed out.
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