Coco Gauff has been told she has now developed another issue with her serve not related to double faults.
Gauff was beaten by Anastasia Potapova in the third round of Roland Garros, which is her worst performance at the clay court major since her debut at the tournament in 2020.
This brought an end to the American’s title defence in Paris, with Gauff claiming she did not play well in the ‘crucial moments’.
Now Gauff’s former coach, Brad Gilbert, has pointed out the issue he thinks she now has with her serve that is not related to double faults.
Brad Gilbert claims Coco Gauff doesn’t hit enough aces after Roland Garros exit
Gauff’s serving woes are often a big topic of conversation, and in the past the conversation was centred around the number of double faults she would hit.
Gilbert coached Gauff for over a year between 2023 and 2024, which includes helping her win the US Open title, and he has now stated that he thinks she does not hit enough aces, rather than too many double faults, pointing out how much of a weakness her second serve is.
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Former top 10 player Andrea Petkovic also joined the conversation, admitting her surprise at how little fight Gauff had in the second set tie-break.
“Let’s talk about Coco Gauff, she lost yesterday to Anastasia Potapova, an in-form player to be fair. She made the semifinals of Madrid, has won a lot of matches on the clay courts,” Petkovic began on The Big T Podcast. “Still to me it was a big surprise, was it a big surprise to you?”
Gilbert responded, “Shock…I know she had lost to her twice in a row, but you break seven times in the match. If you break seven times in the match, you can’t lose a match like that. She was up a set [and] 6-5, couple of points from winning it, up a break in the third.
“A couple of numbers that I look at, I kind of scratched my head on one, one ace and it wasn’t the double faults yesterday, only three double faults. But the continuing theme all year long is the second serve points won and she’s been consistently under 40% all year, 35%. And I still feel like there’s too many first serves that she’s rolling in play, which a lot of girls don’t have a weapon on their first serve.
“I would have liked to seen her if she hit six or 7,8 double faults, but 10 aces, win some free points! I felt like when she would get up the break, she wasn’t aggressive on her serve and then allowed Potapova to get into too many points.”
Petkovic added, “The one thing that was strange to me, even though she lost in the end 6-4, okay things happen. The way her energy levels dropped in the second set tie-break, that’s something that I usually don’t see from Coco, because in these moments is where her biggest strengths comes out and that is that competitor spirit that she can go into lockdown mode, grind down every ball, make a lot of balls.
“It just felt, it wasn’t like she played a horrible tie-break, it just felt energy wise that she just went a little low in one of the most important moments of the match and maybe we haven’t talked about it enough because Coco is so mature and so stable, but maybe the pressure of being the defending champion got to her after all.”
Gauff only hit a combined 11 double faults in her three matches at Roland Garros this year, with the most coming in her first round match against Taylor Townsend where she hit five.
However, the 22-year-old also failed to hit more than two aces in any of her three matches this year, backing up the point that Gilbert made.
| Gauff’s serve at Roland Garros 2026 | Aces | Double Faults |
| First Round vs Taylor Townsend | 1 | 5 |
| Second Round vs Mayar Sherif | 2 | 3 |
| Third Round vs Anastasia Potapova | 1 | 3 |
Brad Gilbert tells Coco Gauff what he would like her to do on grass this year
After suffering an early loss at Roland Garros this year, Gauff will drop 1870 points and will fall down to at least world number six in the rankings.
Gauff has an opportunity to boost her ranking again during the grass court season, and Gilbert has revealed what he would like to see from his former player in the upcoming weeks.
“Each one of her matches, you know, they’re not smooth sailing, but I start with the serve,” said Gilbert
“I really feel like that’s the most important thing and going into the grass season where she struggled the last few years on grass, I would like to see her be way more aggressive on the serve, because you get a benefit on grass.
“But this rolling in the first serve and then the second serve points won under 40% on the year is an ouch number.”
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Gauff will begin her grass court season at the Berlin Tennis Open, where she lost in the first round last year, with the WTA 500 tournament starting on Monday, June 15.
The American will then head to Wimbledon, which is the only Grand Slam tournament where Gauff has not surpassed the fourth round.
