Coco Gauff produced her best-ever result at Wimbledon this year.
The American superstar reached the semi-finals for the first time, beating Belinda Bencic and Jessica Pegula en route.
Prior to this year, Gauff had not advanced past the fourth round in south-west London.
Her improved performance can be – in part – attributed to her enhanced serving throughout the tournament.
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Gauff, who hired a biomechanics coach last August to fix her troublesome serve, kept her double-fault numbers relatively low throughout the event and struck a respectable amount of aces.
Andy Roddick also noticed the improvement in Gauff’s serve, and he may have pinpointed the reason behind the positive development.
Andy Roddick says Coco Gauff ‘went for bigger serves’ at Wimbledon than she has at other events
Andy Roddick, the former world number one, discussed the risk to reward ratio when serving on grass while conducting a question and answer session on the Served Podcast.
Roddick pointed out that players can afford to take more risks on their serve due to the fast, low-bouncing nature of the surface; while also noting that with greater risk comes a greater chance of hitting double faults.
After discussing the men’s side, Roddick offered the same argument when analysing the women’s tour.
“You know, there’s just going to be more risk,” Roddick said of serving on grass. “Taken on grass and rewarded on grass, especially hard flat and slice. You know, getting the ball up in the air isn’t as effective.
“You saw Coco [Gauff] kind of learn in real time,” Roddick then stated. “I think that’s the best example on the women’s side.
“[She] decided to intentionally go a lot bigger with her serve and I thought it was the best her serve has looked in a Grand Slam for a while.
“But also the forehand side – kind of was hitting a little check down flat one coming in behind it.
“It wasn’t the normal thing we see where Coco likes space, likes to back up and then kind of gets a lot of arc.
“To find space above her opponent’s shoulders. That space largely isn’t available on grass or is rarely available on grass.”
Coco Gauff’s average aces and double faults per match at Wimbledon 2026
- Aces – 4.6
- Double faults – 5.1
Where does Wimbledon rank among the fastest court speeds on the tennis circuit?
The ever-reliable Tennis Abstract recently updated their measurements for the Wimbledon court speeds.
Wimbledon is now the 22nd fastest tournament on the ATP Tour [of the 62 events].
The major event has a surface speed of 1.1 and an ace rate of 11.9 per cent.
| Grand Slam | Surface Speed | Ace Rate [%] |
| Australian Open | 1.08 | 11.8 |
| Wimbledon | 1.1 | 11.9 |
| US Open | 0.95 | 10.7 |
For comparison, the fastest courts on Tour – in Dallas – have a surface speed of 1.43 and an ace rate of 16.2 per cent.
Barcelona – the slowest on Tour – have a surface speed of 0.49 and an ace rate of 4.7 per cent.
