{"id":1565,"date":"2026-01-07T12:30:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T12:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=1565"},"modified":"2026-01-07T12:30:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T12:30:52","slug":"coco-gauff-reveals-key-to-improved-serving-as-she-recovers-from-one-of-her-worst-ever-matches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=1565","title":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff reveals key to improved serving as she recovers from one of her \u2018worst-ever\u2019 matches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Coco Gauff has revealed a more positive mentality was the key to her bouncing back from \u201cone of my worst matches\u201d at the 2026 United Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The tw0-time Grand Slam champion earned a dominant 6-3, 6-2 victory over world No 51 Maria Sakkari in Perth to give USA a 1-0 lead against Greece in the United Cup quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tag\/coco-gauff\">Gauff<\/a> then teamed up with Christian Harrison to defeat Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 in the decisive doubles match after Tsitsipas had downed Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-5 to level the tie.<\/p>\n<p>In her previous singles match, the world No 4 suffered a brutal 1-6, 7-6(3), 0-6 defeat to 42nd-ranked Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in USA\u2019s group stage tie against Spain.<\/p>\n<h2>Coco Gauff\u2019s much-improved serving was key in Maria Sakkari win<\/h2>\n<p>In her heavy loss to Bouzas Maneiro, Gauff\u2019s serving troubles resurfaced as she won only 59% of her first serve points and just 19% of her second serve points, having committed 14 double faults. She lost nine of her 13 service games.<\/p>\n<p>It was a completely different story against Sakkari as Gauff posted some impressive statistics on serve \u2014 including facing just a single break point.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Coco Gauff\u2019s serving numbers vs Maria Sakkari<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Aces: 1<\/li>\n<li>Double Faults: 6<\/li>\n<li>First Serve Percentage: 68%<\/li>\n<li>First Serve Points Won: 76%<\/li>\n<li>Second Serve Points Won: 50%<\/li>\n<li>Break Points Saved: 0\/1<\/li>\n<li>Service Games Won: 8\/9<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Tennis News<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-features\/coco-gauff-alarming-serving-stats-united-cup-double-faults\"><strong>Coco Gauff posted alarming stats in heavy United Cup loss \u2013 is her serve still a concern?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/coco-gauff-speaks-out-us-tennis-fans-worst-comment-taylor-fritz\"><strong>Coco Gauff reacts to criticism for saying US tennis fans are \u2018the worst\u2019 at supporting overseas<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>What did Coco Gauff say after beating Maria Sakkari?<\/h2>\n<p>Following her triumph over the 30-year-old Greek, Gauff gave a brutally honest assessment of her loss to Bouzas Maneiro as she discussed her significant increase in level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I think for me it felt like one of my worst matches of my career,\u201d said Gauff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I was like, okay, I felt like I was practising well, and I\u2019m playing practice sets well, and my first match went well. So I tried to erase it and learn from it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think I was the most positive that match, so I just tried to stay positive regardless of what happened today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 21-year-old American was also asked if anything changed to contribute to her improved serving display.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think just mentality,\u201d she said. \u201cI think just going for bigger targets, making her play knowing that I off the ground can hang in there or beat almost everyone. So just adjusting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was difficult like with the first match with the sun on the other side. I don\u2019t think I made the right adjustments, and it was negative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, it was the opposite. Yeah, I think just being positive and the mentality is everything when it comes to that, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>What next for Coco Gauff at the United Cup?<\/h2>\n<p>The USA will play either Poland or Australia in the semi-finals of the United Cup in Sydney on Saturday January 10.<\/p>\n<p>Gauff could, therefore, be set for a blockbuster showdown with Polish star and world No 2 Iga Swiatek if Poland progress.<\/p>\n<p>If Australia advance, Gauff will likely face Australian No 1 Maya Joint in her singles match.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Want more from Tennis365? Add us as <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=tennis365.com\" target=\"_blank\">a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/australian-open\/australian-open-prize-money-record-how-much-could-sinner-alcaraz-sabalenka-swiatek-earn\">Australian Open prize money hits record high: How much could Sinner, Alcaraz, Sabalenka, Swiatek and co earn?<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/tennis-news\/coco-gauff-united-cup-win-serving-improvement\">Coco Gauff reveals key to improved serving as she recovers from one of her \u2018worst-ever\u2019 matches<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennis365.com\/\">Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coco Gauff has revealed a more positive mentality was the key to her bouncing back from \u201cone of my worst matches\u201d at the 2026 United Cup. The tw0-time Grand Slam champion earned a dominant 6-3, 6-2 victory over world No 51 Maria Sakkari in Perth to give USA a 1-0 lead against Greece in the [&hellip;]<\/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-1565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565","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=1565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}