US Open 2025: Coco Gauff continues to struggle with serve, gets visibly upset in second-round win
Earlier this year, Coco Gauff won the second big home title in her tennis career when she won the French Open. But in the tournaments that followed, the young woman of 21 has always had trouble with her service and fought with herself on the field. This led to a superb outing in the first round in Wimbledon in July as a seeded n ° 2.
Gauff saw these bubble numbers in her first -round match in New York this week when she made three sets with Ajla Tomlijanovic. Thursday, things took another difficult turn in the United States when she faced Donna Vekic in the second round.
Gauff committed eight double faults and was visibly emotional in the middle of these struggles. In the end, Gauff did enough to overcome these shortcomings and eliminated Vekic (7-6 (5), 6-2) to move forward.
At one point, Gauff missed two consecutive services and started tearing. She ended up covering her face with a towel on the sidelines before returning to the courtyard.
“I just show people what it is to be a human, and I have bad days, but I think it’s more about how you get up after these bad times and how you introduce yourself after that,” said Gauff after the match. “I think that today I showed that I could get up after feeling the worst that I have ever felt on the ground.”
Gauff has fought with double faults in recent months when she is leading the WTA with more than 300 this season. She recorded 10 double faults against Tomljanovic. Gauff also committed 16 double defects in the quarterfinals against Jasmine Paolini at the Cincinnati Open earlier this month.
In an attempt to correct your service problems, GAUFF Expert in biomechanics hired Gavin MacMillanWho helped No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to repair its service in the past, before the United States Open.
“The biggest challenge is to change the movement and change everything before such a big tournament for me,” said Gauff. “It is one of the most nervous tournaments for me in general, and in addition to all that, it’s a lot.”
She also pointed out that she had let her nerves take the best of her in Thursday’s second round match.
“It was just nerves and pressure, honestly, and I am someone who can generally prosper on this. There was a lot about me this tournament, more than usual, which I expected to come,” added Gauff. “Basically, what you saw there was what it was, and I was able to reset it. But it was a difficult time for me on the field. It was a few difficult weeks on and out of the field, but I’m just happy to go through today.”
Gauff made him break four times and recorded seven double faults in the first set alone. However, she was able to find her composure in the second set when she harvested zero on service breaks and just a single double fault.
Gauff was not the only one who had fought against the double faults during the confrontation on Thursday. Vekic also recorded 10 double defects in defeat.
With Thursday’s victory, Gauff went to No. 28 Magdalena Frech, who beat the American Peyton Stearns (6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-2) to go to the third round.
