Coco Gauff was unhappy with her serving performance in her loss at the 2024 Wuhan Open, and she named it as the reason for her defeat.
The 2023 US Open champion was on a nine-match winning streak entering the match against Aryna Sabalenka. On the other hand, her opponent has been the best player on the WTA Tour in the past few months, so it was a proper challenge for Gauff's streak.
Early in the match, it seemed like the 20-year-old would be able to beat her opponent. She played an incredible set of tennis to start the match, winning the opener 6-1, while winning 86% of points after her first serve.
In the second set, the American player led already 4-2, and it seemed that nothing would be able to stop her from winning the match. However, Sabalenka did. The World No. 2 player won seven games in a row and completely turned the match around.
Although Gauff could then erase her 1-4 deficit in the third set and make it 4-4, Sabalenka still won the match in three sets, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Gauff hit an incredible 21 doubles faults in the loss, nine in both the second and third sets. Naturally, she was asked about her serve after the match, admitting that the mistakes came mostly because it's a shot that she's been working on with her new coach, Matt Daly.
"New things. Yeah, working on a new thing. It's expected. I only had really a week to learn it, then I went to Beijing. I knew it wasn't going to be great. I'm honestly, like, surprised of how well I was able to do with it. We weren't expecting it."
While attempting to change her serve effectively cost Gauff the win against Sabalenka, she recognized it as part of the process. She won the title at the China Open in Beijing, but that was also because she had more time to work on her serve between the matches.
That wasn't the case in Wuhan, and ultimately, the terrible serving performance against Sabalenka cost her a chance to win back-to-back WTA 1000 trophies.
"It's growing pains, ups and downs. Like, vice versa to Beijing. I had a day in between every day to work on it, whereas here, it was kind of back-to-back. I think it was progressively just becoming harder because I got used to getting those reps in between the matches in Beijing."
Gauff was also very honest in her press conference. The World No. 4 player admitted that if she hadn't hit 21 double faults, she would have likely won the match, given how she performed from the baseline. Since she led 6-1 and 4-2 in the match, she likely wasn't wrong about that.
"Yeah, I mean, overall it was a tough match. Aryna played well. I didn't serve great. I think if I could do that better, then it probably would go my way today. Overall, I was up a set and a break. Yeah, I was playing good off the ground. She stepped up her level."
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