Coco Gauff Told To Change Her Approach Amid Continued Forehand Struggles

Tuesday, 20 May 2025 at 17:00

byErik Virostko

Coco Gauff reached yet another final, but this time, she lost, as Jasmine Paolini claimed the trophy at the 2025 Italian Open.

Gauff is an incredible athlete. Her movement alone helps her to be a very good tennis player, as she is very hard to hit through for her opponents. On top of that, the American has a very good and relatively reliable backhand.

However, when it comes to her forehand and her serve, those can be very troublesome for the 2023 US Open champion. It's an often-discussed topic when it comes to Gauff, and her struggles were in the spotlight once again during the Italian Open final.

Gauff lost to Jasmine Paolini, committing seven double faults and accumulating over 30 forehand unforced errors. Although she reached the World No. 2 spot after the tournament, the final loss was certainly a disappointment for the American.

Her performance was discussed on the Tennis Channel, with Jim Courier speaking about Gauff's forehand, pointing out that it can be a huge problem for the 22-year-old.

"She was very frustrated with her team – they were trying to help her, it’s noisy in there. I’m not sure that she could even understand necessarily, what they were saying, but the first serve percentage was very low today, a lot of double faults, but it was all about the forehand."

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"I mean, she had 33 unforced errors in that shot alone. You would need a real big shovel to fill that hole in, and it’s something that’s very concerning, because you don’t want that to happen at the biggest moment."

"Which is what happened here, though she’s been so good and so resilient this whole this tournament in Madrid as well, in being able to fight her way through matches like this. So I didn’t expect that the second set would be even easier than the first set."

Another former ATP World No. 1 player, Andy Roddick, spoke about Gauff's forehand as well. He thinks that the American player should change her approach. Instead of brute-forcing the shot on her bad days, she should use her athletic ability more, compensating for her forehand.

"Listen, the forehand, which we all talk about all the time, is always going to be in the back of her head until it’s not. And you know, all of us say she has to be aggressive on it, she has to go for it."

"I actually think the opposite, if she’s if she’s not finding it early, there’s just not a world where she can get to 33 errors on that side in two sets, right? I actually think it goes the other way."

"I think she should be aggressive early, and then if it’s not there and the errors are mounting, I think she has to just use her motor, right, use her legs to try to find herself in the match. She kind of made it a little bit easier for Paolini."