Former Wimbledon champion believes Coco Gauff’s serving woes could have a ‘five minute fix’

Kevin Palmer 08 Jan 2026 8:30 PM

Coco Gauff at (inset) Pat Cash

Coco Gauff’s serving problems have been ongoing throughout her career and now former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash has suggested there could have been a quick-fix to her issues long ago.

Gauff has overcome her serving demons to win two Grand Slam titles, with her remarkable victory in last year’s French Open a stunning triumph as she was fighting serving issues throughout that event in Paris.

He troubles peaked when she crashed out of the US Open and was clearly emotional on court as she tried to overcome her serving issues, with the always polite Guaff regularly fielding questions about her serving problem when she faces the media.

She has headed into the new season with optimism that she is serving a little better after working with coach Gavin MacMillan for the last few months, with Cash suggesting the agonies Gauff has lived through could have been solved long ago.

MacMillian has been portrayed as a ‘biomechanic coach’ and had success working with Aryna Sabalenka on her serving issues, with Cash arguing the technical flaws in Gauff’s serve could have been ironed out quickly.

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“Gauff’s serve could have been a five minute fixing job, but she has taken her years to sort it out,” Cash told Tennis365 in his role as an ambassador at the Bank of China Hong Kong Open.

“I worked alongside Gavin MacMillan as we found a solution to Brandon Nakashima’s serve and now he has gone on to become this serving guru.”

Cash went onto hint that former players are not being utilised by the game’s current stars, with the recent split of Carlos Alcaraz and his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero evidence that top stars are willing to look for experts who may not have played the game at the highest level to improve their own game.

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“As an ex-player, you are selling your intellectual knowledge to a player,” added Cash. “You are selling 30 or 40 years of knowledge and experience and that is invaluable.

“They pay you a certain amount of money for that and it needs to be valued and it’s not at times. They often shoot themselves in the foot and not following through with what they are doing or taking good advice.

“I’ve seen it so many times that players are getting rid of their coach and we are also seeing it in football where Chelsea are sacking their manager when they lose a couple of matches. Where has that got them?

“Sticking with a coach works and you look back at the best players in tennis and they have had success doing that. What we are seeing is a trend of players getting rid of coaches because of a few dollars here or there.

“You give a player all your knowledge and you want them to work with you to consolidate that into a good career. What happens to often is they take that information and off they go. We are seeing that a lot and by and large, it doesn’t work and they shoot themselves in the foot.”

It will be intriguing to see whether Alcaraz goes on to regret his decision to part ways with Ferrero and the first big test of that decision will come at the Australian Open later this month.