Coco Gauff Hits New Low With Double Faults Stat During Montreal Win
NewsWednesday, 30 July 2025 at 19:50
Coco Gauff had a terrible serving day against Danielle Collins at the 2025 Canadian Open, setting a personal record in the process, but she somehow still won.
Gauff had not won a match or set since beating Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open final to secure her maiden title. She could not refocus for the grass-court swing and lost in the opening round of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships and the 2025 Berlin Open.
Making a positive start to the North American hard-court swing in Montreal might have felt even more important for that reason. Gauff had never played Collins before, and, on paper, it was a pretty brutal draw to get in her opening match.
The match was much scrappier than many fans watching in the stadium and worldwide probably anticipated. Both women hit several unforced errors and did not consistently show the consistent, powerful hitting they are capable of.
Collins hit 13 double faults during the contest across the three sets, which is a high number. However, her issues with giving away cheap points on second serve were dwarfed by Gauff's struggles.
The 21-year-old struck 23 double faults: seven in the opening set, seven in the second, and nine in the third. That is her highest ever recorded number in a match, eclipsing the 21 she hit in the 2024 Wuhan Open semifinal against Aryna Sabalenka.
Gauff's tally was the joint-most in a WTA match since Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova hit 27 in Baku in 2011. Sabalenka, who used to have severe problems with her second serve, is the only other player to reach 23 since Pavyluchenkova 14 years ago.
Repeatedly hitting double faults has been a constant issue for Gauff. She led the WTA Tour in 2024 for double faults and currently holds the most this year, showing that the problem has not improved in a meaningful way.
It is fair to note that Gauff consistently reaching the latter stages of tournaments increases her probability of hitting more double faults than lower-ranked players. However, the numbers are still very high in their own right.
Incredibly, Gauff prevailed despite the 23 double faults and being broken nine times. Collins served for the match at 6-5 in the decider, but the two-time Grand Slam champion broke back before triumphing in the tiebreak to confirm a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 triumph.
It is incredible how many matches Gauff wins while struggling so badly on serve. Most players would crack while managing such a hole in their game, but the American does not. That, and winning two Grand Slam finals after losing the opening set, is why she is arguably the mentally strongest WTA player.
Hall-of-fame coach, Rick Macci, who previously argued that Gauff's serve could be fixed in an hour with a biomechanical approach, repeated that claim in tweets he sent after the world No. 2's win against Collins.
"Coco and the second serve. Talked about this for three years and everybody has given there advice but here we are and double faulting more and almost twice. Everything has been said from grip to toss to head to toe but still nothing to show. This is a muscle memory issue and now the soft tissue. The team has to understand the cause not the effect in order to finally correct."
"Coco has all the inner qualities to dominate on the tour but the second serve is disconnected starting from the floor. 23 doubles last match 260 so far this year and then you mentally trigger fear. It can be fixed in less than 1 hour and no free lunches in bunches."
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