![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756590617_740_USOPEN-610X150-Slide.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDays before the US Open began, Gauff hired biomechanical coach Gavin MacMillan, who helped reconstruct Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s serve, in an effort to fix her wayward serve.<\/p>\n
Former world No. 1 Justine Henin said so much focus has been on Gauff\u2019s revised service motion, many are missing an even more glaring vulnerability: the reigning Roland Garros champion\u2019s western-grip forehand.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Eurosport after Naomi Osaka thumped Gauff 6-3, 6-2 in the US Open fourth round, Henin called Gauff\u2019s forehand \u201ccatastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOsaka did what she had to do by also playing with her experience,\u201d\u00a0Henin told Eurosport. \u201cShe didn\u2019t have to force her talent today either, showing solidity and being present.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt from the start of the match that Coco Gauff\u00a0had fallen back into her old ways, not especially in terms of her serve but in terms of her forehand, it was catastrophic.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, this enormous pressure at the US Open is special for her, but I still think overall, over the whole season, and not so much on the results, what worries me is the lack of evolution in her game. At that age, you\u2019re still progressing, you\u2019re still developing.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be fair, Gauff and MacMillan worked together for about a week before this US Open began. Obviously, her serve and forehand are both works in progress.<\/p>\n
Reigning Roland Garros champion Gauff said after her loss to Osaka, she felt her serve was sharper, but conceded her groundstrokes let her down as Osaka repeatedly pounded away at her forehand, which lacked net clearance and depth.<\/p>\n
In a rematch of US Open champions, a sharp Osaka shredded a sloppy Gauff, who conceded she felt \u201ca little bit empty\u201d on court today.<\/p>\n
\u201cNaomi played well. Today was, like, disappointing, because I felt it was the best I served all
tournament. A lot of aces,\u201d said Gauff, who matched Osaka with three aces. \u201cYeah, there were some
doubles, but I thought, like, that was a good performance from me serving.<\/p>\n
\u201cOff the ground I think I just made way too many mistakes, way too many errors, which I feel like that\u2019s the part of my game that I felt the most confident in coming into the tournament. So it was kind of a weird match, like, feeling confident in different areas swapping.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I mean, it\u2019s disappointing. For sure it was not the level that I wanted to bring, but it is a step in the right direction I feel, and I think emotionally how much this week was, I think today I just stepped in, and I maybe was a little bit empty. She forced me to earn every point out there today.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be sure, Gauff and MacMillan still have a lot of work ahead, but Gauff has already won a Slam this season and is reigning WTA Finals champion, all at the age of 21 so time is on her side as she aims to grow her game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think today when I walked on the court \u2014 and, I don\u2019t know, I feel like I put so much pressure on myself at my age at 21, and I realize how much the girls on tour are being successful at 25, 26, at those ages,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cFor me it just gets me excited to realize if I have four more years of just working as hard as I am right now and actually doing the right things, like where my game could be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, September 3, 2025Photo credit: Jed Jacobsohn\/ROLEX NEW YORK\u2014Coco Gauff\u2019s identity crisis goes deeper…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-116757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}