Coco Gauff narrowly clinched her first win since her French Open triumph despite almost setting an unwanted record for the most double faults on the WTA Tour. The American, 21, has been in a rut since her victory at Roland-Garros in June, where she defeated Aryna Sabalenka.
Her struggles were again on show on Tuesday night as the top seed faced compatriot Danielle Collins at the Canadian Open in Montreal. Gauff’s performance was marred by a whopping 23 double faults and 74 unforced errors. Despite coming within two points of defeat, she rallied to win 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(2) in a match lasting two hours and 55 minutes. But there was very little to celebrate as another opponent on another day would have punished her sloppy serving – something Gauff has struggled to get a handle on in recent times.
The second-round National Bank Open display against Collins marked by far her lowest point when it comes to serving. Her 23 double faults in Montreal were the joint most recorded at the WTA level since Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the Baku Cup in 2011, while tying Aryna Sabalenka’s own tally of 23.
Pavlyuchenkova also won on that occasion, miraculously overcoming 25 double faults to beat Valeria Solovieva in a hard-fought 7-5 6-4 victory. She had 16 double faults in the first set alone and was treated for excessive heat after breaking to lead 3-1 in the final set.
Meanwhile, Gauff admitted after her dismal performance: “It was a frustrating match for me. I felt like I was practising well and then I don’t think I transferred it today, but hopefully I got my bad match of the tournament out of the way and I can come back stronger in the next round.”
Her serving woes were clear to see in March during her unexpected defeat to Belinda Bencic at Indian Wells, having served up eight double faults on that occasion. It also ended her US Open title defence last year, becoming a running theme ever since.
She lost to Emma Navarro 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the quarter finals at Flushing Meadows after registering a whopping 19 double faults – with several of them going into the net – taking her double faults to 38 in just four matches at the tournament.
“I mean, obviously I go down on my left side a lot on my serve, and it’s something I’m aware of, but it’s tough in the moment I guess to try not to do it,” Gauff said afterwards. “I definitely want to get other opinions because, you know – I think it’s sometimes more of an emotional, mental thing because if I go out on the practice court right now, I would make, like, 30 serves in a row.
“I’ve done it before. I think it’s also just kind of a mental hurdle that I have to get over when it comes with that. But, yeah, I definitely want to look at other things because I don’t want to lose matches like this anymore.”
Gauff will hope she can put her serving woes behind her when she faces Veronika Kudermetova in the round of 32 on Thursday.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk