Coco Gauff told her serving problems are ‘now mental’ after constant questions
Coco Gauff’s serving issues continue to be a talking point for the reigning French Open champion and now former British No 1 Greg Rusedski has suggested she is struggling to overcome the mental pressures of her most discussed shot.
Gauff is asked about her serving problems constantly in her media briefings and while she is always courteous in her replies, but the statistics are damning for the world No 4.
The American has thrown in 103 double faults in her 14 matches so far in 2026, with that number well ahead of the player ranked No 2 in the list, with Australia’s Kimberley Birrell next on the list with 83 double faults from just 12 matches.
Victoria Mboko has also been struggling with her serve this season and she has delivered 72 double faults, with Mirra Andreva in seventh place on the 2026 list with 60 double faults from her 15 matches.
Gauff has been working with ‘biomechanics expert’ Gavin MacMillan in an effort to solve her serving problems in recent months, but Rusedski has now claimed Gauff’s issues are not just technical and are more mental.
More Tennis News
Indian Wells Open: Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff get warning from Martina Navratilova
In an extract from his latest podcast published exclusively on Tennis365, Rusedski has claimed Gauff needs to build her confidence on her serve before it will deliver the consistency she needs.
Speaking on the latest edition of his Off Court with Greg Rusedski podcast, one of the great servers in tennis in the 1990s offered up some candid views.
“I think it’s more mental now because everybody’s talking about it,” said Rusedski. “Sometimes when you have a weakness in your game, everybody’s talking about serve, serve. For me it was return, return, return of serve.
“That gets into your psyche and then you start thinking about it and trying too hard and then it takes away from the rest of your game. So what she has to do is yes, keep working on the serve, stop talking about it and just keep on improving the rest of your other parts of your game.”
Rusedski is surprised the serving problems has not been solved by Gauff, as he claimed the issues were not hugely challenging to iron out.
“It’s something that’s not a huge change with the throwing position and getting the timing and getting the balance, but it’s also a mindset towards it and mentally getting over.
“It’s like Aryna Sabalenka. She has the same serving coach that Sabalenka had she said, look, I’m going to take ownership of this and I’m going to take responsibility of my own serve. Great to have this guy helping me out, but at end of the day, it comes down to me under pressure.
“And that’s what Coco’s got to get back to because mentally she won the French Open last year in a hurricane and just mentally staying there.
“So maybe this is the week where she restarts and gets that service thing out of her head and plays some great tennis.”
Gauff will be under pressure to perform in front of her American fans and she will need to serve better than she has done so far this year to be competitive in the WTA 1000 tournament at Indian Wells.
READ NEXT: Coco Gauff told how to fix her serve as former world No 1 questions her training methods
