Coco Gauff turns her biggest weakness into the ace up her sleeve
Coco Gauff believes that she may have turned his biggest weakness into her greatest strength.
Gauff had previously admitted that her forehand needed work and found that she was being figured out by the best of the WTA Tour.
She still fancied her chances against top players, but Gauff believes that her coaching work after Wimbledon had helped her improve her game.
Gauff won the Citi Open last week picking up some big wins and notably playing very well on the forehand side.
She said that even though she was aware of the problems she didn’t have an easy route to fixing her game without stepping away from the WTA Tour.
“A lot of people don’t realize it’s not easy to fix things while you’re playing,” Gauff told reporters ahead of the Canadian Open.
“I didn’t want to take time off from playing. I still felt like I had a shot in the Slams. I mean, I made a Slam final last year.”
She said in Washington that players trying to just hit to her forehand had played into her hands and she now hopes the old scouting report continues to work in her favour.
“Everybody is trying to play the forehand,” Gauff said after winning Washington D.C. “Like, I’m not going to sit here and act like it’s some secret.
“I think that consistently this week I have beaten that scouting report, and I think that’s why the players tend to get a little more frustrated. Almost all week every player that I played has been looking at their box, because I truly think that the plan that they had I was able to kind of combat that.”
Gauff has come close to massive success in the game and proven herself capable of stringing wins together.
She has highlighted a need to be more aggressive as being a big part to unlocking a better forehand.
“There’s still room for a lot of improvement,” Gauff said. “But within the three-week span, it’s been since my first-round loss [at Wimbledon] to now, I feel like it’s improved so much where I don’t feel like it’s a liability.
“It’s becoming a weapon.”
She also gave credit to Brad Gilbert for his input on her game.
“You bring up any player, [Brad] can tell you a lot of things about them without watching,” Gauff said.
“Obviously he watched their matches, but honestly, his mind is like that. I don’t think he needs to.”
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