New York (AFP) – Coco Gauff says she didn’t hesitate to shake up her team just days before the US Open, hoping a new specialist coach can help shore up the serve that has been letting her down. “It was a very sudden decision” to hire biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan, Gauff acknowledged on Friday as she spoke to reporters ahead of the final Grand Slam of the year. “Gavin became available. I just felt this was the best decision for my game at least and I had to go with what I was feeling.”
She had kind parting words for former coach Matt Daly, but clearly thinks that MacMillan — who helped world number one Aryna Sabalenka sort out a slumping serve — has the expertise she needs. “I’m just looking at long-term,” said the world number three, who won her first Grand Slam title at Flushing Meadows in 2023. She added a second at the French Open this year but has been inconsistent since, with her serve a major culprit. Gauff hit 42 double faults in just three matches at the Canadian Open in Montreal this month — including 23 in a single encounter. She coughed up 16 double faults in her Cincinnati exit against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini.
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“I know Gavin has had experience with this before, so hoping I can just take on his knowledge and see what can happen,” Gauff said. The timing, right before a major, wasn’t a factor in the decision. “A tournament is a tournament,” Gauff said. “I hate losing regardless of where I am. I hope I can get it all together — I think I’ll play either Monday or Tuesday — by then. If not, I have the rest of this year to work on it. But I do know I needed to make a change, a technical change to it, and I don’t want to waste time continuing doing the wrong things.”
Defending US Open champion Sabalenka, whose serving woes threatened to derail her rise in 2022, credited MacMillan with putting her back on a path that has carried her to number one in the world. Like Gauff, she was at her wit’s end when she went to MacMillan. “I tried literally everything, and nothing would help me to fix my serve,” Sabalenka recalled on Friday. “It was the last step before I would say, OK, bye-bye, tennis. I was so desperate, so I wasn’t really doubting my decision. The moment we started working, I felt like, ‘OK, there is something. I definitely have a better feeling on my serve.’ And I just trusted the process, trusted myself … So for me, it was about repetitions, a little bit of time and full commitment to whatever he was saying.”
For Gauff, the move that surprised so many is about much more than one Grand Slam. “I know where I want to see my game in the future,” she said. “I’m not going to waste time playing the way I don’t want to play. I’m obsessed with the process of getting better. Sometimes maybe it hurts because I get obsessed with it too much. I feel like I have a clear future where I see myself and I feel like I’m really close. I think this aspect of the game will bring everything together for me.”
© 2024 AFP
