MADRID, SPAIN – MAY 03: Coco Gauff of United States serves the ball against Aryna Sabalenka during the Women’s Singles Final Match on Day 12 of the Mutua Madrid Open at La Caja Magica on May 03, 2025 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Ion Alcoba Beitia/Getty Images)
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Coco Gauff is the highest-paid female athlete in the world. She’s won two Majors and reached three Grand Slam tournament finals. She accomplished all this without a reliable serve.
When Gauff takes the court this week at the 2026 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, all eyes will be on her serve. Two months into 2026, Gauff leads the WTA Tour in double faults, with 103. She has only 19 aces. Contrast that with Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who leads the WTA with 110 aces and only 30 double faults.
What’s going on with Gauff’s serve? The ongoing serving saga has seeped into her psyche, according to several tennis experts.
Four-time Major champion Kim Clijsters believes Gauff might be overthinking her serve.
“It’s like the mental side of it, right, where the focus and you start to doubt, you know, you’re shot more and more, and it becomes, you know, an obsession to try and fix it,” said Clijsters, during a recent episode of the Love All podcast. “But a lot of times working too hard on it can also kind of get into, you know, the negative spiral and become an obsession in a way.”
Last year, Gauff hired Gavin MacMillan, a biomechanics specialist credited with transforming Aryna Sabalenka’s serve from a double-fault disaster into a reliable weapon.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 19: Former tennis player Kim Clijsters speaks during the US Open Reimagining Spectacular investment announcement for the Artur Ashe and USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center restoration at Times Center on May 19, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
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Their partnership has yet to yield lasting improvement. Gauff’s inconsistency on serve overshadows her consistency in the Top 5. The consensus among experts is that Gauff’s woes are more mental than mechanical.
In 2024, Gauff briefly worked with Andy Roddick, who has one of the highest first-serve percentages in ATP Tour history.
During the 2025 U.S. Open, Gauff served eight double faults in a win over Donna Vekic. Although far from Gauff’s worst serving performance, her inability to fix this flaw led to tears during a post-match interview. Roddick addressed Gauff’s serving woes and the meltdown during an episode of his podcast, Served: with Andy Roddick.
“The serve is mental, and I have stood three feet from her and watched her hit 50 beautifully serves in a row. I have seen it,” Roddick said. “She has the ability to be a great server. I do think that she will be a dominant server at some point. I really do.”
Recently, on The Big T podcast, Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert, who coached Roddick when he won the 2003 U.S. Open, said he’s more concerned with the few aces than the number of double faults.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 04: Former professional tennis player Andy Roddick speaks during the IBM US Open Event at Madison Square Park on September 04, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)
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“I know she has been struggling with her serve,” Gilbert said. “103 double faults in 14 matches is a massive number. But the thing I am most curious about is that in 14 matches this year is only 19 aces. I feel like for someone who can serve as big as she can, that is a low number and should be way up.”
Gauff’s fastest serve was 128 mph, a big serve even on the ATP Tour.
In an analysis of Gauff’s serve, New York Times tennis writer Matt Futterman wrote: “Ever since she broke out at 15 with her run to the fourth round of Wimbledon, Gauff has had a feast-or-famine serve. When it’s on, it’s a nearly 130 mph weapon that explodes the ball off her racket. It sails past her opponent before she can move for it. When it’s off, the 21-year-old American can give away a set’s worth of points with double faults.”
Coco Gauff Struggles To Translate Practice Into Perfection
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – AUGUST 22: Coco Gauff of the United States listens to biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan during practice ahead of the US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 22, 2025 in New York City (Photo by Robert Prange/Getty Images)
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Gauff’s serve looks amazing in practice, at least that’s what people who have seen it say.
Gilbert has said that after a poor serving performance, Gauff would hit the practice court and never miss a second serve. Gauff is miffed as to why she hasn’t been able to produce similar results during matches.
“I just feel like some of the things I’ve been working on in practice just aren’t translating into the match court, which is super frustrating,” Gauff said in a press conference after a 6-4, 6-2 loss to Elisabetta Cocciaretto in Doha. “I’ve been having good practices, but just not playing well in the matches. I think I just need to find how to get that to translate.”
Coco Gauff’s Double Faults Impact The Rest Of Her Game
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – JANUARY 27: Coco Gauff of the United States reacts against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine during the Women’s Singles Quarterfinal match on day 10 of the 2026 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 27, 2026 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)
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When Gauff struggles on serve, sometimes the rest of her game suffers. No lead is ever secure, which creates a walking-on-eggshells mentality. In a game of small margins, anything that impedes swagger is a plus for the opponent.
Elina Svitolina dismantled Gauff at the Australian Open, breaking her serve six times en route to a 6-1, 6-2 win in 59 minutes.
In January, 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash told Tennis365 that he could have fixed Gauff’s serve in five minutes but fears she’ll ditch MacMillan and continue to struggle.
“Gauff’s serve could have been a five-minute fixing job, but she has taken her years to sort it out,” Cash said. “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.”
Serena Williams’ former coach, Rick Macci, sees improvement in Gauff’s serve but, like others, believes the hiccup is mental.
“Coco and her serve is better. Technically it is better. What happened at the United Cup was all mental. She is on track ” Macci wrote in a post on X.
PARIS, FRANCE – JUNE 07: Coco Gauff of United States with the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen trophy after her victory over Aryna Sabalenka in the Women’s Singles Final match on Day Fourteen of the 2025 French Open at Roland Garros on June 07, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
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With Indian Wells, the Miami Open, and the clay-court season approaching, Gauff has little time to remove whatever mental block hinders her serve. One thing about Gauff, she’s determined. After her straight-sets loss to Naomi Osaka at the 2025 U.S. Open, Gauff remained positive about her serve and future.
“I think today when I walked on the court — and, I don’t know, I feel like I put so much pressure on myself at my age at 21, and I realize how much the girls on tour are being successful at 25, 26, at those ages,” said Gauff. “For me it just gets me excited to realize if I have four more years of just working as hard as I am right now and actually doing the right things, like where my game could be. It has obviously improved in the last four years from four years ago to now. So I think if I can make that same jump of improvement, it’s a lot to be excited for the future for.”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/merlisalawrencecorbett/2026/02/28/coco-gauffs-serving-woes-are-all-in-her-head-tennis-experts-say/
