{"id":169249,"date":"2025-08-23T13:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T13:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/169249\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T13:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T13:37:11","slug":"coco-gauff-hoping-big-gamble-pays-off-beyond-just-u-s-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/169249\/","title":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff hoping big gamble pays off beyond just U.S. Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coco Gauff is playing the long game when it comes to perfection.<\/p>\n

Firing her coach on the eve of the U.S. Open<\/a> was a huge gamble for Gauff. But apparently not as risky as settling for the status quo, and her old broken serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking at long-term. I hope I can get it all together \u2014 I\u2019ll play either Monday or Tuesday \u2014 by then. If not, I have the rest of this year to work on it,\u201d Gauff said Friday. \u201cBut I do know I needed to make a change \u2014 technical change \u2014 to it, and I don\u2019t want to waste time continuing doing the wrong things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gauff triumphed two years ago in Flushing as a teen phenom. <\/p>\n

But last summer\u2019s title defense was undone by 19 double-faults in a fourth-round loss to Emma Navarro, and coach Brad Gilbert was replaced by Matthew Daly.<\/p>\n

But now \u2014 after this season\u2019s WTA-worst 320 double-faults are more than 100 more than anybody else \u2014 Gauff has fired Daly and hired Gavin MacMillan, a biomechanics expert who rebuilt Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s serve in 2022. The next year, the Belarusian won her first Grand Slam, and followed with two more.<\/p>\n

\"CocoCoco Gauff listens to biomechanics expert and new coach Gavin MacMillan during practice ahead of the US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Aug. 22, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried literally everything, and nothing would help me to fix my serve. It was the last step before I\u2019d say, \u2018OK, bye-bye, tennis.\u2019 I was so desperate, so I wasn\u2019t really doubting my decision,\u201d said Sabalenka, adding, \u201cBut everyone is different, and I wish them both the very best and hopefully everything can work out well for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gauff will continue with longtime coach Jean-Christophe Faurel, as well as MacMillan.<\/p>\n

Third-ranked Gauff is 35-12 with a French Open crown this year. But for her, working out means winning more Slams \u2014 even if it requires a step back in Flushing before taking several leaps forward later.<\/p>\n

\"CocoCoco Gauff talks to the press during Media Day ahead of the US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Aug. 22, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI can be, \u2018OK, I\u2019m doing fine and continuing playing the way that I\u2019m playing.\u2019 But I know where I want to see my game in the future. I\u2019m not going to waste time playing the way I don\u2019t want to play,\u201d said Gauff. \u201cWhen I won U.S. Open, I\u2019ve been very vocal I wasn\u2019t really happy with how I played the whole tournament, and that was a great result for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I just want to get better. I\u2019m obsessed with the process of getting better. Sometimes, maybe it hurts because I get obsessed with it too much. \u2026 I have a clear future where I see myself and I feel like I\u2019m really close. I think this aspect of the game will bring everything together for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gauff played an exhibition with Andre Agassi during U.S. Open fan week, and Rick Macci \u2014 who coached Andy Roddick and both Williams sisters \u2014 can already see the improvement in her serve.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it was a very sudden decision,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cGavin became available, and I just felt this is the best decision for my game, at least, and had to go with what I was feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff is playing the long game when it comes to perfection. Firing her coach on the eve…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":169250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2210,62,1464,67,132,68,20886],"class_list":{"0":"post-169249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-coco-gauff","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tennis","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-us-open-tennis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}