Coco Gauff backed by Serena Williams' ex-coach to overcome serving woes in 2026
NewsWednesday, 03 December 2025 at 16:00
Serena Williams’ former coach, Rick Macci, has backed young Coco Gauff to finally overcome her serving woes in 2026.
Gauff has been amassing double faults on the tennis court.
This season, she registered a staggering 431 double faults—the most by any woman.
She averaged only 43 percent on the second serve, the lowest among the top 20.
She won 68.1 percent of her service games, tied worst with Jasmine Paolini in
top 10.
The two-time Grand Slam champion made 430 double faults in the
year 2024.
Macci, who trained the Williams sisters in their younger days, strongly feels that Gauff’s serving ability will improve drastically, and she will start hitting the spots with higher speed and precision.
He suggested that her parents had helped her identify the root cause of her inefficiency, and she is greatly committed to correcting her flaws.
"Coco is on track because she runs the track. Her work ethic is unsurpassed. The best thing about all the double faults is great athletes with great parents see things others do not. This was an opportunity to take a negative and turn it into a positive because world class athletes understand that fine line between a weapon and liability."
"Her first serve in 2026 will soar to next level. Coco now has the secret sauce biomechanically and not only launch speeds near 130 mph and hit spots the second serve with be a monster kick dancing and prancing and very few doubles."- Rick Macci Posted on X
Coco Gauff roped in Aryna Sabalenka’s former team member to work on her serve
Coco Gauff said goodbye to Matt Daly before this year’s US
Open. Daly, a grip expert, joined the American’s team in late 2024 to correct
her serve but failed to achieve the desired results.
After parting ways with Daly, Gauff roped in biomechanics
specialist Gavin MacMillan. MacMillan played a pivotal role in pulling Aryna
Sabalenka out from the dungeons of double faults after 2022.
That year, Sabalenka committed 428 double faults. MacMillan’s
addition meant she was able to bring the number of errors down to 285 in 2023,
205 in 2024, and 165 this year.
Hoping to emulate her Belarusian counterpart, Gauff began swinging
on the training court under MacMillan’s aegis after the US Open and won the WTA
1000 title in Wuhan.
"It was, like, a very sudden decision. Gavin became available. I just felt this was the best decision for my game, and I had to go with what I was feeling. I know Gavin has had experience with this before, so hoping I can just take on his knowledge and see what can happen."
Even with a misfiring serve, Gauff has been able to pull off
matches against lower-ranked opponents but the bigger stages demand far better.
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