Coco Gauff’s well-documented struggles with her serve and forehand have been a recurring theme in tennis discussions. Even the legendary tennis coach, Rick Macci, once optimistically stated that improvements in these areas would propel her to the world number one ranking. However, the reality has been marked by inconsistency. Last year, the Wuhan Open witnessed a concerning 21 double faults from Gauff in a single semi-final match. Unfortunately, the 2025 season hasn’t brought a complete resolution to these issues. Her recent performance at the Miami Open, culminating in a straight-sets defeat to Magda Linette, was marred by 12 double faults and 45 unforced errors. Serena Williams’ former coach, Rennae Stubbs, was among the first to raise an alarm over this ongoing inconsistency.

Rennae Stubbs has been consistently vocal about Coco Gauff’s vulnerabilities, particularly under pressure, citing technical flaws in her serve and forehand. Following Gauff’s early exit from Indian Wells, Stubbs pointed out that the controlled environment of indoor matches often masked these issues, which become more pronounced outdoors with wind and other variables. She specifically mentioned Gauff’s second serve, service motion, service grip, and forehand as areas of concern.

Stubbs’ worries were seemingly validated by Gauff’s alarming 21 double faults and 74 unforced errors in her R64 match against Moyuka Uchijima at the Miami Open. While Gauff showed some improvement in subsequent matches, her straight-sets loss to Magda Linette has further fueled Stubbs’ concerns.

On the latest episode of The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, released on March 25th, Stubbs expressed her surprise at Gauff’s defeat to the world number 34. Despite Gauff having had a comfortable start, “playing really well, very comfortable couple of wins, an 0-0 match against Kenin, which was crazy”, Stubbs found the recent loss “a bit unacceptable.”

She reiterated her long-standing criticisms, adding, “But to beat Coco Gauff 4-4 in Florida, tons of support. It’s just, Coco is just, yeah, there’s a lot missing there. And a lot of it just comes down to, again, the same stuff, the double-faulting, the forehand. It’s just like, at some point, you have to go and break that down a little bit and get some confidence on it.”

She further added, “I don’t care who you are, your confidence has to suffer. And she has not gotten to a latter part of a tournament in a long time. And when you’re talking about the consistency of an English ground tech and a Sabalenka, Coco is not having that. And so she has really dropped out of that top-tier five-level. And losing to Magda Linette is not a good loss at the Miami Open for her.“

Having said that, Stubbs believes there is some light at the end of the tunnel! She also admitted that she is “not too worried” about Gauff because she believes once she gets on the clay courts, she will play even better. Gauff’s best record at the French Open came in 2022 when she reached the finals. Will we see a different Coco Gauff in this year’s French Open? Perhaps it’s time to take her predictions more seriously. Remember what happened last year at the WTA Finals?

Stubbs said that if Gauff serves less than six double faults in her matches, no matter what match she plays, she will win the tournament. Interestingly, in that tournament, except for one match, Gauff managed to keep his double fault count less than 6, and she won that tournament, defeating Qinwen Zheng in the final.

Stubbs, who has been an equal admirer of Gauff, once even revealed that she doesn’t like to get too critical of her. “I adore Coco Gauff, I think she’s the nicest kid. She is so personable when you see her. I hate talking about her critically because I think she’s just such a special person. But it is my job to also try and teach people why she doesn’t have the success that they think she should,” said Stubbs in a previous interview.

Did Gauff self-analyse her performance against Linette after her exit from the Miami Open, though?

Coco Gauff shares her thoughts on her performance against Magda Linette

This was her third meeting with the Pole, and with this win, Magda Linette has now managed to open her account on their H2H record (1-2). After pulling off this stunning upset at the 2025 Miami Open, Linette signed the camera, writing “33 is looking good,“ to commemorate her victory against an opponent who is almost 12 years younger than her.

Speaking about her incredible win against Coco Gauff, she said, “Beating Coco for the first time is a huge achievement for me. She’s so tough. Even on her worst days, she’s so so tough. Thank you so much everyone for making this atmosphere so nice.” What did Gauff say after the match, though?

Well, the world number 3 looked a bit disappointed with her performance in this match as she said, “It wasn’t great today. It hasn’t been the last few weeks. I’m trying to figure that out. Definitely not happy about it. Just one of those days when I felt awful in everything on the court.” Do you think Coco Gauff can make a strong comeback in her next tournament?