11 weeks agoCoco Gauff stood on Philip Chatelier’s coat and rolled up the Suzanne Renren cup as thousands of fans applauded her.
It was the second major title of her young career, and followed the stellar clay season, which appeared to have more success throughout the year.
But she couldn’t find momentum on the grass. She lost in the opening round of her only warm-up tournament prior to Wimbledon. And at the All England Club three weeks after her victory in Paris, she was upset in the first round in straight sets.
“Mentally, I feel a bit overwhelmed by everything that came afterwards (French Open),” a disappointed Gouf said after the loss. “I didn’t feel like I had enough time to bless you and come back.”
But the early exit meant that 21-year-old Gauff had more time to prepare for the North American hard court swing and the final major at the US Open. She won the title in 2023 and was an early candidate to win again.
On Thursday, Golf returned to the worshiping crowd again. This time we’re in front of 24,000 people at Arthur Ash Stadium. She won the second round clash with Donna Vekic, and fans thanked Gov for everything he overcame in the match. She was visibly struggling all the time.
“To be honest, today was a tough game for me, but I’m happy with how I managed it. It was rough for a few weeks,” Gauff said before beginning to cry. “You guys have really helped me so much, so I’m doing this for myself. I’m doing it for you too. No matter how difficult it is, you can do it.”
Well, after her fierce battle 7-6 (5), winning Vekic 6-2, joining the third round in New York, Gauff currently has the fourth highest odds in ESPN BET, and is a fan favorite. But she found a way to keep winning, but to reach this point it was on a roller coaster ride on and off the court.
After struggling with her serve over the summer, she made changes to her team in the hopes of fixing it in the days leading up to the tournament. Players are constantly firing and hiring new coaches, but few people do anything close to major when they are trying to implement such a consequential technical fix.
It’s a high-risk gamble and what Gauff wants to get a high reward. But even she knows how big a challenge it is during perhaps her most important and favorite tournament.
Still, regardless of the last two weeks, she believes it is worth it.
“I mean, tournaments are tournaments,” Gouf said. “I hate losing no matter where I am. If this is 250 (level), I think it would be weird to do that.
“Yeah, this felt like a good opportunity. I don’t have that many points to be honest in this part of the season. I’m one of those people. I hope we can do it all together… by then (but) I have the rest of the year to work on it, but I have to change it and continue with it.”
Gauff wasn’t trying to make such a dramatic change just before the US opened.
She liked coach Matt Daly. He began working with her last year after the US Open and soon won the China Open. However, she could no longer deny the seriousness of her service troubles. In a two-round match at the Canada Open at the end of July, Gauff had 23 double faults. The most WTA matches since 2019. Very, due to her incredible all-round skill set and intense backhand, she won the match, but her problems continued. She won a total of 42 in three matches in the tournament.
At the start of the US, Golf led the WTA with double faults this season.
A powerful weapon can offer more than 128 mph at best. However, her serve has disappointed her at many important moments throughout her career. After losing in the fourth round of losses that saw her record 19 double faults, and being excluded from the 2024 US Open, Goff faced her hardships head-on.
She fired Brad Gilbert and brought in grip specialist Daly. With his guidance, in addition to the longtime coach of Jean-Christophe Faurel, Gauff has changed the hand placement of the rackets. In addition to winning the title in China, Gouf finished the year as a champion in the WTA Finals in November.
It remained an effective change in the slower clay courts. However, since the tour returned to faster speeds on grass and hard courts, it has become abundantly clear to Goff and those around her that if she wanted to achieve the lofty career goals she set for herself.
It’s not a small task, just like basketball players change shooting movements and golfers switch swings. And last week, when Gavin Macmillan, a biomechanics expert who most famously helped Aryna Sabalenka overcome her service in 2022, became “magically available” in her words, Gauff knew he couldn’t wait anymore. Gauff couldn’t risk him joining someone else’s team, so she made a “quick decision.”
Last Wednesday, four days before the start of the main draw, Gouf was found at the clinic court along with MacMillan and Faurel, leading to immediate speculation of the changes she made. She later confirmed that she had broken up with Daly and brought Macmillan. They quickly got to work – and even seen at the practice courts that were open at the time, as the rain fell later that day.
“I literally served until my shoulder hurts, so practice week was tough. “Yeah, that’s just hard.”
Much of the sport was unsettled about timing. Andy Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion who worked with Gouf for several days in 2023, was called “ambitious” on his aptly named “serve” podcast.
“It’s very surprising that players, who are top players, do that, especially just before the majors,” Plays-turned-playmanager Patrick McEnroe told Play-Fuziter’s media call. “But one thing you have to love with Coco Gough is that she wants to be better. She’s open to talking from different people.”
Gauff didn’t want to share too many details about the changes when asked, but compared it to learning a new language. Former World No. 1 and four-time major champion Jim Courier, who calls it “a bit more complicated” on the tennis channel broadcast, “is doing something a little different with his hips, shoulders and (and) racket toss.”
“To put it in real time, I can’t stress enough how much courage it takes,” he added.
Goff told reporters she was trying to “not get hooked on (it)” but confessed after seeing a post tagged with a photo of a service movement on social media, so it was clear that it dominated her thinking.
In his first round match on Tuesday, Gouf brought everything he learned during his six-day practice with MacMillan. Goff, who performed with Arthur Ash in an evening session with unseeded Australian Azilla Tomjanovic, who had literally ended Serena Williams’ career three years ago in the same courthouse, proved how difficult such a big change is.
A close-contested 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5 victory was just under three hours, with Gauff losing six service games and 10 doubles obstacles. She later said she was “mentally exhausted” and admitted how difficult it is to focus on new changes that don’t return to old habits during the heat of the battle.
“It’s a new move,” Gouf said after the match. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t work. When I do it, or when I do it, it’s always a good outcome. It just reminds me of how to do it. But obviously, there’s so much going on in my head in their tough moments.
Ultimately, Gauff said it was a “necessary match” because of its intensity and extremely stressful moments and “good tests.”
Gouff, who played again in a Primetime Night match at Ash on Thursday night, got off to an even more volatile start. She double faulted seven times in the opening set and broke in four service games. After double faulting and losing yet another service game and losing a score in the 4-All, Gauff was seen screaming into the towel while switching. Soon, chasing 6-5 and having been broken in the previous game due to two double faults, Gauff tried desperately to practice her serve while Vekic needed a medical timeout.
An unexpected chance to reset seemed to help Gauff. She took a short break before the second set, pouring water over her bathroom face and regaining her calmness. A much more biased second set followed. Perhaps most impressively, she had only one double flaw. She was unable to hide her relief in the conclusion of the match.
“To be honest, I think it was just nerves and just pressure, and I’m usually someone who can thrive on it,” Gouf later told reporters. “There was more to this tournament than usual. That was what I thought I came, so basically what you saw was what it was and I was able to reset through it. But yeah, that was a challenging moment for me.”
Gauff will face No. 28 Seed Magdalena Frech on Saturday. Goff has won both previous career meetings, including a 6-1, 6-2 defeat in the 2024 Australia Open, which could be an important opportunity to make progress before competition becomes even more difficult. If she wins that match, her blockbuster measures against resurrected Naomi osaka, the US two-time open champion, could have waited in the fourth round.
Gough has repeatedly found ways to win this week and throughout her career, even when her serves are disappointing her. But while her goal in New York is to reclaim the trophy, her current focus is only to implement the changes she has learned.
She knows that doing this is the only way to achieve your ultimate goal, no matter how uncomfortable or inconvenient it may be. And even moments of panic and confusion are clearly tortured to her, so in the long run they only help her.
“I think this whole tournament will stick to the rest of my career. I know that if I can feel my feelings and get through two tough matches, I can get through almost anything,” Gouf said Thursday night. “Regardless of that, I hope to get more Grand Slam finals, and when those nerves come, I remember this feeling and know that it probably won’t get much worse than this.”
