Former world No 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov has questioned Coco Gauff\u2019s training methods as he described the American star\u2019s serving issues as a \u201cmystery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauff<\/a> reached the semi-finals at last week\u2019s Dubai Championships, which is her best result of 2026 so far, but her serve was an area of concern throughout.<\/p>\n The two-time Grand Slam winner hit 44 double faults across her four matches \u2014 with 12 coming in three different matches, including her semi-final loss to Elina Svitolina.<\/p>\n After hitting a double fault in the second set of her defeat to Svitolina, Gauff voiced her frustration towards her biomechanics coach Gavin McMillan.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been doing everything you wanted for six months\u2026 I\u2019m not better at all,\u201d the 21-year-old was heard saying.<\/p>\n Gauff hired McMillan in August with the intention of making technical improvements to her serve. Her only title since joining forces with McMillan came at the WTA 1000 in Wuhan in October.<\/p>\n The world No 4 hit the most double faults among all WTA Tour players in 2025 (431) and 2024 (430).<\/p>\n Coco Gauff leaves former US star surprised with mid-match comment to coach<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n WTA ATX Open sets up \u2018rage room\u2019 after Coco Gauff incident at Australian Open<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking on the First & Red YouTube channel, Kafelnikov gave his verdict on Gauff\u2019s serve and insisted that repetition on the practice court should solve her problems.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a mystery to me how someone with such experience can make such mistakes,\u201d said the two-time major champion.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a question right away: How is the training structured?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m committed to the fact that I\u2019m absolutely certain that quantity turns into quality.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you serve, roughly speaking, 1,000 serves, you\u2019ll fine-tune it.\u201d<\/p>\n Elena Dememtieva, a former world No 3, also weighed in and pointed out that Gauff is also struggling with her forehand.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem here is not only her serve, but also her forehand, which is failing,\u201d said the former world No 5.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, she\u2019s playing only with her backhand, incredible physical fitness, and character.<\/p>\n \u201cShe relies on those three pillars, but it\u2019s very difficult at her level. She\u2019s one of those vying for the number one spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Gauff is next set to compete at the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells, which will begin on 4 March.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: What is Emma Raducanu\u2019s record with Mark Petchey as she reunites with coach?<\/a> The post Coco Gauff told how to fix her serve as former world No 1 questions her training methods<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former world No 1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov has questioned Coco Gauff\u2019s training methods as he described the American star\u2019s serving issues as a \u201cmystery.\u201d Gauff reached the semi-finals at last week\u2019s Dubai Championships, which is her best result of 2026 so far, but her serve was an area of concern throughout. The two-time Grand Slam winner […]<\/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-1795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795","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=1795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}WTA Tour News<\/h2>\n
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