Former doubles world No 1 Rennae Stubbs has identified a key problem in Coco Gauff’s game, that she believes is responsible for many of the American’s losses.
Stubbs, who has coached the likes of Serena Williams and Karolina Pliskova, believes that Gauff’s technique – mainly on her forehand – is frequently a problem and can be exposed, when against elite players.
“Her technique fails under pressure and when you’re playing outside – a lot of her success last year and even at the beginning of this year was played indoors – there’s no wind or variables,” said Stubbs, on her self-titled podcast.
“When you have a technique that is questionable at times, whether it be the second serve and the service motion, and the service grip, all that sort of stuff and the forehand, it affects your game more.”
The world No 3 hit a dismal 21 double faults and 74 unforced errors against Moyuka Uchijima in Indian Wells, before producing six double faults in her final game against Maria Sakkari.
As Stubbs stated, Gauff’s forehand – specifically – has long been a subject of criticism and is the former US Open champion’s weaker side.
“Her technique on her forehand is always going to be a problem for her going forehand,” Stubbs added.
“So it’s a matter of can she get over those humps. Can she get through the tough three-set match, which she didn’t last week?
“She is going to have unbelievable support in Miami. And maybe this is the breakthrough she needs going into the clay, which we know she plays well on.
“It is a work in progress. It is going to be a work in progress with the serve and her forehand for the rest of her career. And when she loses that is why she is going to lose, that’s why we always talk about it.”
The Australian former coach is not the only one to identify the glaring problem, with Sly Large – who coached Gauff between the ages of six and 14 – recently remarking: “What happened somewhere along the line, between 13 and when she went to Mouratoglou, she started developing a little hitch in her forehand.
“My only guess is, I didn’t see her for a couple of years, but I believe they must have taken their eye off of her forehand.
“Nobody was keeping an eye on everything, making sure that what got her to the No. 1 spot kept that going. For four years, we never took our eyes off the forehand. It was always a work in progress.”
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Despite her disappointing 6-4 record in 2025, Gauff believes she can turn her form around and dismissed the recent criticism: “Everyone makes a bigger deal than what it is.
“I’ll lose more matches back to back. It’s going to happen.”
Coco Gauff will face former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in her first-round match at the Miami Open, with their head-to-head tied at 2-2.
Their most recent meeting, at the first Grand Slam of 2025, saw Gauff sail past – 6-3, 6-3.
The post Former world No 1 points out obvious Coco Gauff weakness – ‘Always a problem’ appeared first on Tennis365.
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