Coco Gauff has changed coaches just a few days out from the US Open.
The 21-year-old has suffered from a period of inconsistent form on the WTA Tour since winning the French Open Ladies’ Singles title in early June.
Following that success, Gauff was shocked in the first round of Wimbledon by Dayana Yastremska, before losing to 18-year-old Victoria Mboko at the Canadian Open. The following week she was defeated by Jasmine Paolini at the Cincinnati Open.
On Wednesday, Gauff changed her backroom staff, parting ways with coach Matt Daly and bringing in Gavin MacMillan.
MacMillan is a biomechanics specialist who has previously worked with Aryna Sabalenka to help correct her serve. With Gauff struggling mightily on serve in recent months, MacMillan could provide the antidote for these troubles.
MacMillan has previously discussed the mechanics of the serving motion, while delving into the technical changes he made to Aryna Sabalenka’s serve.
Gavin MacMillan spoke about the changes he made to Aryna Sabalenka’s serve
Speaking during an interview on the Performance-Plus Tennis YouTube channel in February 2024, MacMillan was asked for his position on the height of a ball toss when serving, with the interviewer referring to discussions regarding Sabalenka’s ball toss being too high.
During the interview, MacMillan discussed some of the technical changes he had made to Sabalenka’s serve, including a more fluid weight shift during the serving motion.
MacMillan said: “It’s a symptom. It’s not that, the problem is something completely different.
“So the reason her [Sabalenka’s] ball toss gets high is because now if you look at her motion closely when she starts shifting her weight back and sometimes when she’s tighter her arms are kept in front of her, so her weight’s back and her arms haven’t caught up.
“So now she has a pinpoint stance, so then she steps up, her arms now going back as her body is going forward.
“So the only way she can catch up to it is to keep the ball toss high, and it’s obviously still part of the thing we’re trying to work out.
“But people have to realise the limited amount of time when you’re trying to play on the tour that you have to actually fix these things.
“You can see that, like she had so many things wrong from the beginning with her toss arm, what she was doing with her right arm and is it perfect no?
“But is it 100 per cent better? Yeah, it’s a lot better.
“When she’s in practice and she gets more really fluid with her take back, her weight shift is all together.
“She keeps the wrist angle at the neutral and at the right angle, her toss isn’t high because obviously if that ball’s dropping too much like that, any type of hesitation, especially under those types of pressure can cause a problem.”
Will Gavin MacMillan transform Coco Gauff’s serve?
When considering the effect Gavin MacMillan had on Aryna Sabalenka’s game, it is easy to see why Coco Gauff has hired the biomechanics expert.
Sabalenka suffered from severe serving issues in the earlier portion of her career, registering a high volume of double faults and sometimes resorting to underarm serving.
However, under the tutelage of MacMillan, Sabalenka waved away her serving struggles and now owns one of the most feared serves on the WTA Tour.
With the arsenal of weapons Gauff already has at her disposal, a potential transformation of Gauff’s fortunes on serve could mark a significant turning point in the American’s career.
