Coco Gauff warned that her weaknesses could ‘hurt her in majors’
Coco Gauff surprised many people by “winning ugly” to lift the Wuhan Open trophy, but former doubles world No 1 Rennae Stubbs warns that at some point the American’s weaknesses will catch up with her at big tournaments.
Following a 6-1, 6-2 hammering by Amanda Anisimova in the semi-final of the China Open, Gauff bounced back in Wuhan as she won the WTA 1000 tournament without dropping a set, beating seventh seed Jasmine Paolini in the semi-final and sixth seed Jessica Pegula in the final.
The two-time Grand Slam winner’s title – her first since winning the French Open in June – came despite the obvious chinks in her armour, namely her serve and forehand.
Gauff has now served more than 400 double faults during the current WTA Tour season while her forehand remains inconsistent, but she is looking to fix those problems as she is currently working with biomechanics specialist Gavin MacMillan
But that is a long-term process and four-time Grand Slam women’s doubles champion Stubbs is impressed with the 21-year-old’s resiliance, but she has a warning for the world No 3.
“She is the ultimate player of winning ugly…,” she said on the Rennae Stubbs podcast.
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The Australian – who felt Gauff should skip the Asia swing to work on her serve – added: “The thing about winning ugly is that it’s got to be stressful. At some point, how much is she going to be able to take ‘I can’t get a serve in the court. I can’t hit my forehand! It’s not like I’m a bit nervous today’.
“Jess Pegula’s her biggest issue is that her racket doesn’t feel great, or ‘I can’t feel the ball’, but she’s never like ‘I know I can’t hit a serve’.
“I would hate to walk out on the court and know that there were two weaknesses that were so glaring everyone knew about and as soon as I miss one or two of them be like ‘everyone knows I can’t hit my forehand in the court’.
“How many players in the top 10 are going ‘I hope I can hit that shot in the court today?’ and that is Coco. There were times she was double-faulting again. That was in the semis and in the final, but she just keeps going. She is built different.
“I give her tons of credit, I love her. I don’t know if it’s the right thing because at some point again, in a big match at the majors, is it going to hurt her though? That she hasn’t worked on those things enough.”
