Coco Gauff may have ended the 2025 season with mixed emotions according to Rennae Stubbs.
Gauff ended her season at the WTA Finals, finishing the year as the world number three for a third consecutive season.
The 21-year-old has won two titles this year, with Gauff winning the French Open and her third WTA 1000 title at the Wuhan Open.
Despite this, six-time Grand Slam doubles champion Stubbs has suggested Gauff may be disappointed about something when reflecting on this year.
Rennae Stubbs admits mixed feelings about Coco Gauff’s 2025 season
Gauff is often compared to the Williams sisters, and she has previously spoken about wanting to achieve similar success to both Serena and Venus.
At the start of the 2024 season, Gauff gave herself a big Grand Slam target, and Stubbs believes that her current tally of two majors may be disappointing to her.
How far will Coco Gauff go at the 2026 Australian Open?
When speaking on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, she also spoke about the mixed feelings she had relating to Gauff’s public serving issues.
“I think the one thing about Coco is that the reason that flipped in my mind when you said it [that she would take Coco’s year] is because Coco has said that she wants to win the most Grand Slams,” said Stubbs.
“She has put it out there that she wants to be one of the greatest of all time. That’s her words, not mine. She has consistently put it out there and not been afraid to say she wants to be as great as Venus or Serena.
“I’m like okay, well, they won a lot of major titles when they were 18, 19 or 20. They were racking them up at your age. Okay, you have two, which is unbelievable. At your age to do what you have done is incredible.
“So I’m like okay, if you want to get to 20, you have to win two for 10 more years or you have to win a lot in a short period of time, depending on how long you want to play for. So I think in some respects that is disappointing because she wants to rack them up.
“The other part of me is like Coco is such a balanced human being that she has also talked about knowing that winning doesn’t define her as a person. She has talked about that a lot this year.
“I don’t know whether she is going to therapy or what is happening but she has this different perspective on winning and losing as well, where she is very adamant that it does not change her as a person.
“So I’m like in that respect she would look at this year as a success. She has made a lot of money, won another major title. But also at the same time we saw the breakdowns, the crying on the court again, the double faulting, the forehand woes as well.
“Coco this year had such a Coco year. You are like she is unbelievable and then you’re like what is going on? So I don’t know how she would look at this year.
“If she looks at it like [Aryna] Sabalenka, which was a learning year of what can I get better at in 2026, then sure this was a great year for her in terms of looking at winning a major title and going I know how much better I can get.
“Then there are a lot of parts of her game that she can get better. Having said that she has a new biomechanics coach in Gavin [MacMillan], so we will see how she turns up in Australia, because that will answer a lot of the questions.”
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How many Grand Slams had Serena and Venus Williams won at the same age as Coco Gauff?
Gauff has already won 11 WTA titles at just 21 years old, which is better than most, but not quite up to the rate of the Williams sisters.
Both Serena and Venus Williams had already been world number one before turning 22 years old, and had won six and four Grand Slam singles titles, respectively.
Gauff still has a slim opportunity to become world number one, but she would need to have a very impressive start to the 2026 season before her 22nd birthday in March.
| Coco Gauff | Serena Williams before turning 22 | Venus Williams before turning 22 | |
| Total titles | 11 | 23 | 25 |
| Grand Slam titles | 2 | 6 | 4 |
| Highest ranking | No.2 | No.1 | No.1 |
The 2026 season for Gauff will start at the United Cup, where she helped USA win the title alongside Taylor Fritz.
Gauff will then head to Melbourne for the Australian Open, where she achieved her best result in 2024 after reaching the semifinals.
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