Coco Gauff exited the 2025 WTA Finals in Riyadh at the round robin stage, and Jimmy Connors and Tim Henman have weighed in on the American star\u2019s serving struggles.<\/p>\n
Gauff<\/a> was the reigning WTA Finals champion, but her hopes of defending the title ended with her 6-7(5), 2-6 defeat to world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in her third and final round robin match on Thursday.<\/p>\n The world No 3 needed to beat Sabalenka in straight sets to progress to the semi-finals after Jessica Pegula\u2019s straight-set win over Jasmine Paolini.<\/p>\n Gauff\u2019s serve has been an ongoing issue, and she has frequently been plagued by high numbers of double faults in her matches this season.<\/p>\n Ahead of the US Open, Gauff parted ways with her former coach Matt Daly and hired biomechanical expert Gavin MacMillan with the aim of addressing her serving troubles. She has made technical changes to her service motion with MacMillan\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n The two-time Grand Slam champion\u00a0started her campaign in Riyadh with a 3-6, 7-6(2), 2-6 loss to Pegula \u2014 during which she hit 17 double faults and won only 28% of her second serve points.<\/p>\n The 21-year-old then committed only three double faults in her 6-3, 6-2 win over Paolini in her second match, before she hit six against Sabalenka.<\/p>\n WTA Finals: How Amanda Anisimova can overtake Coco Gauff as US No 1<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n WTA Finals prize money & ranking points won by Coco Gauff and Jasmine Paolini revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Speaking on Sky Sports after Sabalenka defeated Gauff in Riyadh, Henman highlighted the difference between the two players\u2019 serves.<\/p>\n The former British No 1 spoke about how Sabalenka previously overcame her own second serve troubles, and pointed to the impact Gauff\u2019s serve has on her overall game.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is that she (Sabalenka) has been in these toughest situations in the biggest tournaments and she has come out on top a lot,\u201d said the Brit.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that winning breeds more confidence and she doesn\u2019t second guess herself.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that she had issues with her second serve and she was the one who came up with solutions, I think now when it does get tight she does have the clarity of thought, whereas others can be questioned.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the problem with Gauff. She is having to concentrate so hard on her serve that it does reflect into other parts of her game.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking on the latest episode of his Advantage Connors podcast, Connors gave some advice to Gauff as he addressed the American\u2019s attempts to improve her serve.<\/p>\n The eight-time Grand Slam champion suggested Gauff should not have tried to make technical changes to her serve until the off-season.<\/p>\n \u201cMake your opponent beat you. Don\u2019t beat yourself,\u201d said the former world No 1.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s got six or seven weeks to regroup and not continue to try to improve and do things on the fly.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s hard to do, to go in and be put under the pressure of winning matches, tournaments, beating the best players when you\u2019re trying to make changes.<\/p>\n \u201cChanges are to be made in the off season, not when you\u2019re trying to win a title.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Aryna Sabalenka reveals she could be helped by Novak Djokovic in \u2018Battle of the Sexes\u2019 clash<\/a> The post What Tim Henman & Jimmy Connors said about Coco Gauff\u2019s biggest issue after WTA Finals exit<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Coco Gauff exited the 2025 WTA Finals in Riyadh at the round robin stage, and Jimmy Connors and Tim Henman have weighed in on the American star\u2019s serving struggles. Gauff was the reigning WTA Finals champion, but her hopes of defending the title ended with her 6-7(5), 2-6 defeat to world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jimmy Connors and Tim Henman give their verdict on Coco Gauff<\/h2>\n
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Tennis News<\/h2>\n
What did Tim Henman say after Coco Gauff\u2019s WTA Finals exit?<\/h2>\n
What did Jimmy Connors say about Coco Gauff\u2019s serving issues?<\/h2>\n
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