Even with her new team in place, Coco Gauff continues to suffer from a wayward forehand and shaky serve that was at the forefront of her implosion against Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals at the Wuhan Open which included 21 double faults.
In the week following her return to the winner's circle at the China Open (def. Muchová), Gauff squandered a 6-1 4-2 lead against the Belarusian as the fourth-seed was plagued by the same issues which led to her recent split with coach Brad Gilbert following the American’s failed US Open title defence.
Following an indifferent middle third of the 2024 season which included back-to-back round of 16 losses to compatriot Emma Navarro at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows, coupled with early losses in Montreal and Cincinnati, Gauff made the call to end her working relationship with Gilbert, barely twelve months after her first Grand Slam title at the 2023US Open.
Revered for coaching Agassi to six of his eight Grand Slams, and Roddick to his lone major at the 2003 US Open, Gilbert’s influence was immediately evident in the Gauff game as she won in Washington, the Cincinnati Masters, and New York in the mere infancy of their relationship last year.
That sugar hit, however, did not last. Despite a strong start last year that included semi-final losses to the eventual champions at the Australian Open (loss to Sabalenka) and Roland Garros (loss to Świątek), Gauff’s tennis was far from her scintillating best.
In fact, much of Gauff’s success this year came down to her sheer competitiveness and athleticism, which she was able to attain by the bulk of the WTA Tour with those attributes alone. All the while, her troublesome forehand and serve kept creating holes to dig out of.
For many, watching Gauff win without her best tennis was seen as supporting evidence that the Gilbert effect was working. After all, Gilbert’s book, ‘Winning Ugly: Mental Warfare in Tennis,’ demonstrates his belief that tennis is primarily a mental game in which players must learn to win without their best tennis, which is seldom present.
The issue for Gauff was that her best tennis never really came together this season. So while a perfect day on the tennis court may only arrive a handful of times a season and winning ugly is a necessary tool for all players, Gauff was living in the latter to the exclusion of the former.
Such was her run of indifferent form, the BBC's David Law commented that the split between Guaff and Gilbert "didn’t feel like a surprise" and the relationship had "run its course."
"It didn’t feel that good, the vibe between them anymore,” said Law on The Tennis Podcast.
"She had the [US Open] result, with Brad Gilbert, but he does tend to be the short, sharp, shock sort of coach who makes the very best of what you’ve got and gets the best out of you, hides your weaknesses and helps you win ugly, but it does tend to be short term sometimes.
"It’ll be fascinating what she does next because there’s more than one direction she can go, including an Aryna Sabalenka-style biomechanist to rebuild a couple of strokes."
The direction that Gauff chose was to hire coach Matt Daly who had recently worked with Canadian male Denis Shapovalov.
With Daly at the helm, a man known for his technical nous, the pair have elected for something more subtle than biomechanical analysis, instead opting for a grip change to her natural serving grip after Gauff declared that her primary focus.
That change, while temporarily successful the week prior in Beijing, spectacularly unravelled against Sabalenka as the pressure gauge rose.
Gauff now holds the unenviable records for the most double faults this season and the most in a single match.
Fortunately for her, the rest of her game is so strong that her ranking of world No.3 does not belie her status on the WTA Tour. Rather, it highlights her extraordinary prowess in the face of continued adversity.
Ultimately, the path Gauff takes forward will reveal her assessment of her game. Does she believe she needs only minor tweaks to solve major problems? Or will she seek radical change in the pursuit of radical results?
In reality, there are barely a handful of players capable of besting Gauff on her good days, namely Świątek and Sabalenka who won three of the four Grand Slams this season, but the 20-year-old is unlikely to find herself fighting against them for major silverware unless she can lift the floor of her worst.
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