Written by Richard Pagliaro | @Itenisi_Manje | Monday, September 1, 2024
Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty for the ITF Davis Cup
NEW YORK-Coco Gauff served up self-sabotage as Emma Navarro ended his US Open reign today.
Country number 3 will seek the help of an assistant doctor to try to fix his secondary problems.
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Navarro took advantage of Gauff’s 19 double faults to knock out the defending champion 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to his first US Open quarterfinals.
Gauff made 11 of her 19 double faults in the final set. The result was nearly five double-fault games for Gauff today.
Buoyed by Navarro’s ferocious comeback, Gauff’s struggles today stemmed from the pressure of defending his first title. Several of those double faults went into the net as Gauff sometimes pulled his head down too early, curled the left side of his body and could slow down his swing on the second serve.
“I mean, obviously I’ve gone down a lot on my left side in my career, and it’s something I’m aware of, but right now it’s hard to imagine that I’ve tried not to,” Gauff said.
In all, Gauff committed 38 double faults in four games at Flushing Meadows.
Gauff, who has worked with former No. 1 Andy Roddick to try to lower his ball toss and spread the service box, said the second release is a mental hurdle he needs to clear.
To do that, he plans to seek out an assistant pro, perhaps revisit his work with Roddick, to fix that second serve.
“Yeah, I want to get other opinions because, you know – and I think sometimes it’s an emotional, mental thing because if I’m going out on the court right now, I could be, like, working on the 30. line,” Gauff said. “I’ve done it before. I think it’s also a mental hurdle to go through when it comes to that. But, yeah, I want to look at other things because I don’t want to lose something like this.”
