Coco Gauff’s serving struggles have been well-documented over the last year, yet she continues to make little progress.
That is, despite the American hiring Gavin MacMillan last August, in an effort to completely rewire her problem area.
She routinely hits double figures for double faults in matches, and the unforced error count, particularly off the forehand wing, is alarmingly high too. Combining these issues means she effectively starts every match at a huge disadvantage.
Coco Gauff will be desperate to find a solution to this problem, but none seems to be forthcoming just yet.
Kim Clijsters, speaking on her Love All podcast, is the latest to try to offer some advice.
Kim Clijsters has serving advice for Coco Gauff
The Belgian tennis legend began by suggesting that the scrutiny is not helping with Gauff’s confidence: “In our first episode, we had Ons Jabeur on, and she talked about, like, why is everybody talking about her serve? She has a good serve. And that’s the thing that I think people, and the media, and you know, commentators at times too… Like, there’s so much focus on her serve right now that when she serves a double fault, everybody, like, jumps on it right away.
“And I think for her, mentally, you can only kind of avoid it so much, that it is being looked at as a weakness, and it is at times, but she at times serves really good as well. And I think that’s where, you know, I’m very intrigued about the fact that why at times she, you know, the double faults kind of build up.”
Are you worried about Coco Gauff in 2026?
Clijsters then reacted after watching Gauff appear to voice her frustration with her coach mid-match, adding: “That’s the thing that I think for Coco, it’s going to take time and, you know, it’s all about the communication that she has.
“Okay, you know, we saw her get frustrated, which is totally fine, and I get the frustration, the disappointment in herself, in the serve. I totally get it, but it’s going to take time, and I think she’s going to keep having to put the time into it and the hours and a lot of times when it is that mental side of it, that is something that you can’t practice, right?
“You can say, like, Oh, let me get that feeling of, you know, being a little bit tighter in my arm or worried about my next shot. You don’t create that same kind of feeling and pressure in practice.
“And so she almost has to take those big matches as she had in the Dubai semifinal and really try to push and focus on, you know, certain aspects.”
Where will Coco Gauff be ranked at the end of the 2026 season?
She finished with some advice: “I always loved aiming at targets. I used to visualise targets during my match, even when they weren’t there, and that really helped me a lot as well.
“So, you know, there’s a lot of things that they can do, but, you know, sometimes less is more. I think, especially in this situation, there are so many people, and we’re talking about it too, right? Like, there are so many people talking about it. And so I think sometimes in her situation, less is more.”
Coco Gauff’s Australian Open outburst inspires tennis change
Away from the court, Gauff has actually started to inspire change in the sport after her Australian Open campaign.
After all, following her loss to Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals, she retreated to within the Rod Laver Arena before unleashing her fury on a racket.
Sadly for her, the incident was caught on camera and widely distributed for all to see.
Gauff called for more player privacy in the aftermath, and the Austin Open is seemingly the first to take action on this request.
They introduced a ‘rage room’, a camera-free zone where players can go, knowing they will be exempt from the scrutiny of the public eye.
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