Earlier this year, Coco Gough won the second Grand Slam title of her tennis career when she won the French Open. However, in the subsequent tournaments, the 21-year-old consistently struggled with her serve and fought herself in court. It led to a spectacular first round exit as the second seed at Wimbledon in July.
Gauff saw these issues return to the bubble when they went into three sets with Ajla Tomlijanovic in their first round match this week in New York. Then on Thursday, things went even tougher turns at the US Open when they faced off against Donna Bekic in the second round.
Gouf committed eight double faults and was visibly emotional in those struggles. In the end, Gauff did enough to overcome these shortcomings and moved forward with the elimination of Vekic (7-6(5), 6-2).
At one point, Gauff missed two consecutive serves and began to tear. She ended up covering her face with a towel on the sideline before returning to court.
“I’m just showing people what it’s like to be human, and there are bad days, but I think it’s about how you stand up after those bad moments and how you show up after that,” Gouf said after the match. “I think today I showed what I can do after feeling the worst I felt in court.”
Gauff has struggled with double faults in recent months as he leads the WTA with over 300 players this season. She recorded 10 double faults against Tomljanovic. Gouf also committed an astounding 16 double faults in his quarter-final match against Jasmine Palini at the Cincinnati Open earlier this month.
To fix her serving issues, goof Gavin Macmillan, hired biomechanics expertbefore the US opened, the number one Aryna Sabalenka in the past helped fix her serve.
“The biggest challenge for me is changing the movements and changing everything before a big tournament like this,” Gauff said. “This is one of the most tense tournaments for me, and in addition to this, there are a lot of them.”
She also pointed out that her nerves made the most of her in Thursday’s second round match.
“To be honest, it’s just nerves and pressure, and I’m someone who can usually thrive. This tournament had more to do than usual. “Basically, what you saw there was what it was and I was able to reset through it. But it was a challenging moment for me on the court. It was tough on the court for a few weeks, on and off the court, and I’m happy to get through it today.”
Gouf broke her service four times and registered seven double faults in the first set alone. However, she was able to find a sense of calm in the second set as she tallied a zero service break and one double fault.
Gouf wasn’t the only one who struggled with double faults in Thursday’s showdown. Vekic also recorded a double fault of 10 times in loss.
With Thursday’s victory, Golf faced No. 28 Magdalena Fletch and defeated America’s Payton Stearns (6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-2) to advance to the third round.
