Brad Gilbert has revealed that his former pupil Andy Roddick helped modify Coco Gauff's serve during the offseason.
Roddick, a one-time former US Open champion and who remains the last American man to win a Grand Slam, answered Gilbert's call last month to take time away from his schedule and work on Gauff's serve. Roddick is a big fan of the teenager's tennis and has backed her to win more Slams.
While the major drawback in Gauff's game has been her erratic forehand, her acclaimed coach pinpointed an area he felt needed some fine-tuning. Very few had the resume to match Roddick's serving prowess.
The retired American was once Gilbert's charge. He won his lone major title under his tutelage and ascended to World No. 1 two decades ago. If anything, Gilbert knew Roddick was a man with the sharpest mind to pass the wisdom to his newest prodigy, Coco Gauff.
In an interview with ESPN, Gilbert admitted he called on Roddick during the offseason as he felt he was the ultimate master of the serve. For two days, Roddick worked on truncating Gauff's service motion and instilled consistency behind the shot.
"I coached Andy at a young age. He’s got an amazing serve. And I was thinking, ‘what a great person to take a look at Coco’s serve. It’s kind of full circle. When I coached Andy, I was his age now. Andy was like Coco’s age. It was a great two days. Really helped things out, simplified Coco’s motion, abbreviated a little bit."
Gauff had also discussed the off-season confection, although she remained tightlipped when she spoke in her Australian Open pre-tournament press conference about the presence of Roddick during pre-season. She noted that the idea was to make her ball toss "more consistent."
"It only took me, like, two days—maybe three—to get really comfortable with it. It was just to make the toss more consistent. Instead of throwing from so low to start up higher to make the toss more consistent."
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