NEW YORK (AP) — Coco Gauff wishes she weren't trying out a new service motion in what she called “the high-stress situation” of the U.S. Open.
She would have loved to have more time to collaborate with serving guru Gavin MacMillan than the six days they were able to spend together before needing to test out the changes in front of thousands of fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium and millions more watching on TV around the world.
That, though, is the way things went. And, Gauff figures, better late than never. So there the No. 3-ranked player was at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday night, at a Grand Slam tournament she won in 2023, stuck in the crucible of a third set against a player, Alja Tomljanovic, who beat Serena Williams in the 23-time major champion's final match on tour.
“First round is more stressful than the final, in my experience,” said Gauff, who lost her opening match at Wimbledon last month. “Yeah, I think for me, it was a good test.”
Was it ever. And, although there were stumbles along the way — 10 double-faults, six lost service games — Gauff managed to pull out a 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5 victory over the 79th-ranked Tomljanovic across nearly three hours.
“It’s definitely tough going through the match and battling that internal battle,” reigning French Open champion Gauff said, “especially (because) this is the first tournament.”
As might be expected, there were ups and downs, as evidenced by the end of the match.
Serving for the win at 5-4 in the third set, Gauff began with a pair of double-faults, and Tomljanovic broke to pull even.
“That was definitely like an old habit,” Gauff said. “The next game was a lot better.”
Sure was. After breaking right back, Gauff got another chance to serve it out at 6-5, and this time was able to seal the deal.
“I was like, ‘OK, I have to trust the work we did on court,’” she said, “and that’s what I did (in) that game.”
MacMillan is a biomechanics expert who helps athletes in various sports. In tennis, he famously worked with Aryna Sabalenka in 2022, reinventing her serve when she was dealing with the sort of double-faulting issues that Gauff has faced lately. The 21-year-old American hit 19 in her U.S. Open loss a year ago, recently had 23 in a win and leads the tour with more than 300 this season.
Soon after teaming with MacMillan, Sabalenka was winning the first of her three major championships, including at last year's U.S. Open, and rising to No. 1 in the rankings.
For Gauff, MacMillan has used video and data to alter the way she starts a point. She said she's been practicing so much that she's been “literally serving until, like, my shoulder was hurting.”
Why?
“I know that this is the part of my game that needs to improve,” she said, “if I want to get the results that I want to receive.”
On Tuesday, it appeared she was rotating her body differently and tossing balls to a different spot.
“It's a new motion. At times I do it well, and at times not so well. When I do it well — or when I do it — it’s always a good result. It’s just reminding myself how to do it,” she said. “But obviously there are so many things going in my head at those tough moments, and (I'm) not just thinking about the serve. I’m thinking about how to play out the point, where to serve, what she’s going to do.”
Not that Gauff went into too much detail with reporters.
“I don’t want to give out everything that we’re working on,” she said. “I’m transparent, but I’ll keep that for myself.”
Gauff can still bring the big serves when she wants: She hit one at 117 mph in the third set. But she purposely was hitting them slower against Tomljanovic, particularly at the outset.
Her first serves averaged 88 mph in the first set, 97 mph in the second and 101 mph in the third.
“It’s a personal choice to serve slower,” Gauff said. “I know if I need my serve to get up, I can get it up, but it’s about making sure I stay in the motion that we worked on.”
___
Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
