Coco Gauff hired Pere Riba over the summer, and for a while, it looked great; however, they are not working together anymore.
This was rather shocking news to many in the community, especially in the manner it was announced. During her match at the WTA Finals against Ons Jabeur, Chanda Rubin and Lindsay Davenport dropped the news that Gauff was not working with Pere Riba anymore.
She hired him leading up to Wimbledon after some good recommendations by other players. He was quite a modern voice in Gauff's camp, pushing her to play more aggressive tennis than before.
While Wimbledon didn't go that well, things looked much better after that. Some attributed that to her bringing in veteran coaching voice Brad Gilbert, which she kind of confirmed.
She maintained that they all worked as a team and were getting along well. Nobody questioned that because she was winning and playing great tennis.
Winning the US Open certainly made it seem like she made all the right decisions, but now this new development throws a bit of doubt on that. Gilbert is in Cancun with Gauff along with her regular team, but Pere Riba is not.
Whether there was some sort of clash of voices in the team or whether Gauff realized that she didn't really need the Spaniard remains to be seen, but that's the setup according to reports on the ground in Mexico.
For now, she's there only with Gilbert, who likely assumed the role of the leading coach in her team. It didn't seem to have an impact on her level though.
She absolutely crushed Ons Jabeur to win her first match at the WTA Finals ever. One more win, and she's through to the next round, which is expected. Many even think she's the favourite to win the competition.
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