As one of the most respected coaches in the game, Rick Macci would like to help Coco Gauff work on the part of her game that is so often discussed, her forehand.
Coco Gauff's forehand seems to be a stroke that has been discussed a thousand times already, but it's yet to be fully fixed. Speaking during the grass-court part of the season, the young American said that working with Macci is one of the options , and the USPTA Florida Hall of Fame coach talked exclusively to Tennis-Infinity.com about possibly working with Gauff.
Only recently, the 19-year-old added Pere Riba to her coaching team, and in Washington, Brad Gilbert has been working with her too. According to her own words, Gauff is in a rebuilding period , and Rick Macci may help her with rebuilding the most vulnerable part of her game.
The seven-time USPTA Coach of the Year talked about how he would approach the reconstruction of Gauff's forehand, and the renowned coach said that he would do it differently to how it's been done over the past few years.
"I never talked directly with Coco. I've talked to her father a couple of times. He came to the park, to the Rick Macci Tennis Center, I talked to him and Jarmere Jenkins, her hitting partner, and the way I would go about doing this would be very different than what has been done the last five, six years."
Macci said that he wouldn't be alone when attempting to fix Gauff's forehand. The former coach of Serena and Venus Williams would invite his partner Dr. Brian Gordon Ph.D. to help him, since he's got expertise in tennis biomechanics.
"I would probably go at this with my partner Brian Gordon. Who has his Ph.D. in biomechanics. He did his thesis on this, and I told Corey we would do reconstructive surgery. I would teach her the ATP forehand. See, to me, this is a technical thing, science-based, that has to be changed. If she wants to optimize her ability on the forehand."
Previously, Mary Joe Fernandez said that Gauff should take 6-8 months off to fix her forehand, but according to Macci, that is not needed. The American coach would like to work with the second-highest-ranked American in the WTA Rankings for five to eight weeks during the off-season.
"But she's checked in enough boxes to be Top 10 in the world. Great fighter, money in the bank on the backhand, and great volleyer. So she's good enough to be there, but her forehand, in my opinion, If they want to take time off at the end of the year, she's gonna have to take off 5-8 weeks and break it down."
Confident of his own abilities, and having a resume that only proves it, Macci believes that working with Gauff could improve her forehand so radically that it would become one of the best shots in women's tennis.
"But listen, no one could put this together, together and make a whole new stroke better than myself. It would be a totally different stroke. I would consult, I could be involved, but this would be a major project if they wanted to, and it'd be at the end of the year. But I know at the end of the day, I can make her forehand one of the best shots in women's tennis."
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