Follow us on Google Discover Coco Gauff’s serve is often a huge topic of conversation and has been throughout the 2025 season.
Gauff has hit more double faults than any other player on the WTA Tour in 2025, despite winning a Grand Slam title this year.
The American hit rock bottom with her serve in Canada, with Gauff hitting 23 double faults in one match.
As a result of these serving woes, Gauff parted ways with coach Matt Daly and decided to bring in serving specialist Gavin MacMillan.
Photo by Robert Prange/Getty ImagesGavin MacMillan details what he has told Coco Gauff to work on with her serve
MacMillan has previously helped work on Sabalenka’s serve, which enabled her to become a multiple-time Grand Slam champion.
Gauff already has two majors to her name, and MacMillan will be hoping to take that even further in 2026.
The improvements in the American’s serve have already been on show, with Gauff winning the Wuhan Open title at her latest tournament.
As MacMillan looks to keep this positive momentum going, he spoke to Tennis Channel about the specific changes and improvements he wants to make to Gauff’s serve.
“The goal for her first and foremost is to establish an effective kick serve,” said MacMillan. “Once she is doing that and she is confident in it. This last tournament in the first round she hit it really, really well. The first match in I don’t know how many years that she did not double at all.
“What you are battling is what George St-Pierre put to me so clearly one day. He was like you try these new things and you start learning to punch a bit differently but when a guy hits you in the face you go right back to what you know.
“Your brain when you have patterned it this many times, that is what you are trying to overcome. So the first goal in my mind is to get an effective kick serve that she 100% trusts.
“Once we have that in place, we can start establishing hitting more effective first serves that not only have velocity but spin. It’s not just one thing to hit it hard. If you hit it hard and it bounces flat, it’s into everybody’s wheelhouse.
“What you want to be doing is hitting it hard with spin so it jumps up out of their strike zone. If you are not doing that it’s like baseball, straight fast balls don’t work. You have to have movement on it. So those are the goals immediately.”
Coco Gauff’s service statistics at the US Open vs the Wuhan Open
Gauff has been able to prove people wrong about her serve, and although it was far from perfect at the Wuhan Open there were some noticeable improvements.
Every single statistic in terms of her serve was improved at the Wuhan Open compared to the US Open, where Gauff was left in tears after one of her matches due to the struggles she was facing.
This included one match where Gauff hit no double faults, which has been a real issue for her in the 2025 season.
Coco Gauff’s Serve US OpenWuhan OpenAverage Aces per match2.52.6Average Double faults per match6.755.4First Serve %68%72%First Serve Win %64%67%Second Serve Win %43%47%Average Games Broken per match3.752.4
Gauff will look to continue improving these numbers at her final tournament of the year, which is the WTA Finals.
The year-end tournament in Riyadh takes place between November 1-8, with Gauff the defending WTA Finals champion.