{"id":937,"date":"2025-08-27T15:30:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=937"},"modified":"2025-08-27T15:30:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T15:30:48","slug":"has-coco-gauff-already-written-off-this-years-us-open-after-candid-admission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=937","title":{"rendered":"Has Coco Gauff already written off this year\u2019s US Open after candid admission?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coco Gauff has suggested she will need time before the impact of her new coach Gavin MacMillan to kick in, with her hopes of success at this year\u2019s US Open secondary to her long-term goals.<\/p>\n

That was the impression she gave in a brutally honest press conference after her tense first round win against Australia\u2019s Ajla Tomljanovic, with the issues she is working with McMillan to solve in evidence during her first round match in New York.<\/p>\n

There was plenty of surprise around the tennis world when a player who won the French Open in June changed her coaching set-up in the days before the US Open.<\/p>\n

Gauff\u2019s<\/a> move to dispose of the services of coach Matt Daly and hire Gavin MacMillan days before the start of the US Open was an unusual move for a player who won a Grand Slam title a little over two months ago, but she explained her reasoning prior to the start of the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very sudden decision,\u201d she said. \u201cGavin magically became available. I just felt this was the best decision for my game, at least, and I had to go with what I was feeling.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/h2>\n

Alarming Coco Gauff service stats highlight why she made big coaching change<\/a><\/p>\n

Coco Gauff told she has \u2018unlimited potential\u2019 by Serena Williams\u2019 ex-coach after major shake-up<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think Matt is a great coach and a great person and 100% love working with him. Yeah, I mean, we obviously had a very successful partnership, but I\u2019m just looking at long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Gavin has had experience with this before so, hoping I can just take on his knowledge and see what can happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a decision I had to make and by this time next year, I\u2019m sure I will be serving a lot better. It\u2019s all about the mechanics and like learning a new language. It\u2019s just about trying that new [service] motion and when I do it well, it always provides a good result.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing is not just thinking about the serve. I need to think about how I will play out the point. It\u2019s not a mental thing. It\u2019s a biomechanics thing and I\u2019m just working hard to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacMillan is credited with rebuilding the service motion of world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> and even though Gauff has enjoyed great success in her career, that is clearly an area she needs to improve on if she wants to fulfil her potential.<\/p>\n

Gauff has been battling nerves and technical issues on her serve throughout her career and MacMillan has a big task on his hands to find a solution, with her opening match against Tomljanovic highlighting the issues all over again.<\/p>\n

The 2023 US Open champion<\/a> had a look of anguish on her face as she struggled with her serve in the first set against Tomljanovic and while her final double fault count of 10 is not as bad as some of her performances in recent years, the unforced error count of 59 in her 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 win was concerning.<\/p>\n

\"Pictured:\n

Coco Gauff and coach Gavin MacMillan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Gauff\u2019s forehand looked shaky against Tomljanovic and combined with a serve that she pushes into court rather than hitting through it when nerves take hold, this was a performance that had some worryingly familiar flaws for the American.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough match,\u201d she added. \u201cI had chances for it to be straight sets. Ajla was tough. It wasn\u2019t the best, but I\u2019m happy to get through to the next round.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had so many chances and [I knew] eventually it was going to come. I had chances to close out in two, I had chances to go up a double break so many times, so yeah I was just like \u2018eventually one of these are going to go my way and it ended up happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough going through a match and fighting those inner battles. It\u2019s great to get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gauff looked like an athlete who was trying to compute too much information against Tomljanovic, with the decision to hire MacMillan and try to make changes to her serve while also competing in a Grand Slam likely to end her hopes of winning this US Open.<\/p>\n

But her vision is long-term and the comment that she expected to be back in New York next year with her serving problems resolved, highlighting how this is a long-term plan for an inspiring young woman who is not afraid to confront her demons in the full glare of the watching world.<\/p>\n

Coco described the process of changing coaches as \u201cmentally exhausting\u201d after the match and if she performs as she did against Tomljanovic, her US Open challenge could end in her next match.<\/p>\n

The experienced Donna Vekic lies in wait for Gauff in round two and after the Croatian beat her in convincing fashion on her favoured clay courts at last year\u2019s Olympics in Paris<\/a>, this looks set to be a demanding test for the No 3 seed, who appears to be in a period of transition in her game.<\/p>\n

Gauff may have been wise to wait until the end of the season to change her coaching set-up, with changes of this magnitude not ideal when she is playing in her home Grand Slam and pressure and expectations are already inflated to debilitating levels.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: <\/strong>Coco Gauff admits \u2018it wasn\u2019t the best\u2019 as old problems resurface<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The post Has Coco Gauff already written off this year\u2019s US Open after candid admission?<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coco Gauff has suggested she will need time before the impact of her new coach Gavin MacMillan to kick in, with her hopes of success at this year\u2019s US Open secondary to her long-term goals. That was the impression she gave in a brutally honest press conference after her tense first round win against Australia\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937","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=937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}