Gauff’s former coach Brad Gilbert once told The Sit-Down podcast that “there’s no reason why she shouldn’t be good on any surface, because of her movement and her willingness to grind on the court”, and added: “I think ultimately the surface she will improve the most on is grass, because I think [that’s where] her game has a lot of upside.”

Two things seemed to have noticeably improved for Gauff at Wimbledon this year.

The first is her serve. Her numbers have improved sharply since Roland Garros – she’s serving more aces than double faults, while ratcheting up her speeds – and it seems to be trending positively longer-term.
 

Tournament

Round

Avg. 1st serve speed

Aces / double faults

Roland Garros

1R

173 km/h

1 / 5

Roland Garros

2R

154 km/h

2 / 3

Roland Garros

3R

165 km/h

1 / 3

Wimbledon

1R

178 km/h

3 / 2

Wimbledon

2R

181 km/h

10 / 5

After chronic battles with technical flaws and confidence on her delivery, Gauff brought biomechanist Gavin Macmillan into her team. As 2026 has unfolded, the double faults have reduced in frequency while her famed power has returned.

Gauff cranked a serve at 202km/h in her win over Korpatsch and blasted 10 aces past Sierra as her average first serve increased again.

“I’m going for way bigger serves than I normally do,” she admitted. “I think also because I’m changing my serve – well, I changed my serve, now I feel really confident that I can hit any spot at almost any moment.”

Serving success is no doubt contributing to her second improvement – her attitude to grass.

Historically, this has been the major venue at which Gauff has struggled most. At the three other Grand Slam tournaments, the American owns 20-plus match wins and a success rate well above 70 per cent. Yet at Wimbledon, those figures fall to 13 wins and 68 per cent, respectively, even after factoring in her two wins this week.
 

Factors such as her extreme forehand grip seemed ill-suited to grass, until Gauff watched Iga Swiatek triumph at Wimbledon in 2025.

“Last year Iga won, so we have very similar grips. I think that also maybe changed my perspective on how I can play on grass,” said Gauff, who also described focusing on better grasscourt footwork and aggressive, decisive shotmaking.

“I definitely think seeing her win last year gave me confidence of, ‘OK, I can be good on this surface, I just need to figure out how I have to play’.

“I feel I finally have an idea of what that looks like for me in my head, now it’s about just executing it… Before I feel like I was always adjusting to my opponent. Now I feel like I’m making my opponent adjust to me.”