Twelve months ago, a haunting image captured American tennis star Coco Gauff: alone, drained, pounding serves through relentless drizzle on the practice courts of the US Open. That quiet, desperate moment perfectly summed up the internal battle she was fighting against a crippling serving slump that threatened to derail the career of one of the sport’s most talented two-time Grand Slam champions.
This year, the 22-year-old fourth seed has returned to Flushing Meadows a changed competitor, and her revamped service game was the unshakable foundation of a straight-sets opening round victory over Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez on Tuesday, finishing 6-3, 6-4. From the first game, Gauff set an uncompromising tone, holding serve to love in under two minutes to set the pace of the match. When Sonmez mounted a late comeback push in the second set, it was Gauff’s newly sharpened serve that got her out of trouble and closed out the win.
Looking back on the 12-month transformation, Gauff can barely recognize the player she was a year ago. “Now it’s like I can look back a year on and think, ‘Oh, wow, it’s a big difference’,” she told reporters after the match. “It feels good to come into a tournament feeling confident on that shot finally.”
The overhaul began on the eve of last year’s home Slam, when Gauff made the risky decision to restructure her coaching team and brought on Gavin MacMillan, a biomechanics specialist with a proven track record of fixing serving woes—most notably helping four-time Grand Slam champion Aryna Sabalenka work through her own consistency issues earlier in her career. The drastic shakeup came after a string of costly double faults derailed Gauff’s run at the Cincinnati Open just weeks before the 2023 US Open, leaving her with no other choice but to act.
Tinkering with core technique ahead of the sport’s biggest stage, where Gauff is already under intense public scrutiny, was always a high-stakes gamble. The risk failed to pay off 12 months ago: Gauff exited the tournament in the fourth round, visibly frazzled through every match and even reduced to tears as her serving struggles persisted. Today, that disappointment is fuel for her 2024 run. Though she still racks up an occasional double fault, her serve is now one of the most dangerous weapons in her arsenal, rather than a persistent weakness. “Last year I literally was like I hope I make it in,” Gauff said of her serving mindset. “It’s such a big difference knowing almost every serve I’m trying to basically hit 110, 115, 120mph if I can.”