Coco Gauff’s serve has been a hot topic of discussion in the tennis world for quite some time now. She hit 38 double faults in her four matches at the US Open this year and then even at the China Open, the numbers sprang up to 42! Amid all these, we saw several tennis experts coming up with different solutions for the young American. However, the most vocal among them was Serena Williams’ former coach Rennae Stubbs. She recently claimed, “If she (Gauff) serves less than six double faults in her matches, no matter what match she plays, she will win the tournament.” Guess what? Gauff won her first match at the 2024 WTA Finals and she hit just 2 double faults!

She literally outclassed her compatriot, Jessica Pegula in that match by winning that match by a 6-3,6-2 margin. Stubbs has always been a big admirer of Coco Gauff! She thinks, “Her (Gauff’s) serve is as big as anybody’s on Tour.” The Aussie legend looked quite delighted to see her predictions for Gauff turning out to be true. Gauff’s improvement in her serve drew praise from a lot of fans. Rennae Stubbs even went on to put a tweet highlighting her accurate prediction for the American star.

Later on, even during the recent episode of The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, she spoke about the same. Stubbs said, “One of the things I said in the last pod was if she (Gauff) serves under 6 double faults in that matches she plays, she’ll win them all. She served 2 against Pegula! That’s my point, she been playing well, she has been hitting the ball great, and her groundies are great. Like she’s the best mover on Tour, like she knows how to win big matches, she knows how to win big tournaments. You cannot win if you give someone 20 plus free points a match.”

The 53-year-old Aussie legend further claimed, “Having said that, playing indoors really helps you serve. The wind doesn’t affect you, the sun doesn’t affect you. If you’re double-faulting in indoors, you have a huge problem with your service techniques, okay. But having said that, she didn’t hit more than 2 double faults and won the match easily against someone she has notoriously lost a lot of tennis matches.” Coco Gauff will next face Iga Swiatek in just a few hours from now in her second group stage match at the WTA Finals.

Her record against the Polish superstar isn’t that impressive. However, if she manages to keep things tidy yet again, then she could definitely cause a few troubles for Swiatek in this match. Does Rennae Stubbs have any role in Gauff’s recent improvement, though? Well, previously we saw her taking a jibe at Gauff’s ex-coach, Brad Gilbert for her poor technique. She highlighted, “So under pressure, bad technique breaks down and her (Gauff’s) technique is… hard for me to say because Brad [Gilbert] is sitting here… but her technique, the elbow, is too low, the grip is a little weird as well.” Stubbs was seen pointing out the flaws in Gauff’s game time and again this year. However, we can’t say if Stubbs really had a direct role in this or not, but she definitely detected the right problem in Gauff’s game.

After her US Open exit, we saw Gauff parting ways with Gilbert and bringing in Matt Daly to her team. Is Daly’s inclusion into the team the real reason behind Coco Gauff’s recent improvement in her serve, then?

“I wanted someone to help me with what I wanted to see progress in, especially on the serve” – Coco Gauff

Even before, Rennae Stubbs’ prediction, we heard Coco Gauff say that she’s aiming to serve no more than one or two double faults per match. Then when fans saw Stubbs speaking on the same lines some of them questioned whether Rennae Stubbs would be the perfect person to take up the coaching role in Gauff’s team. After hearing these types of speculations, Stubbs said, “I mean I wouldn’t say no to an opportunity with a great player, there’s no way. But that’s not a decision for me to make. I love Coco, I think she’s an incredible kid. I think she’s an incredibly hard worker, I respect the heck out of her. She has only ever been an amazing person to be around.”

Not only this, but even earlier also there have been multiple such instances where we’ve seen Stubbs reflecting her admiration for Coco Gauff. For example, during the 2023 French Open, she praised Gauff for her remarkable maturity and composure at such a young age. So, fans picking her to replace Gilbert was quite understandable, but Gauff went on with Matt Daly to work alongside long-term-coach Jean Christophe Faurel. The partnership seemed to have clicked right from the word ‘go’.

What was the exact reason to bring in Daly in her team, though? Ahead of the WTA Finals, during a press conference Gauff said, “Yeah, I think for me, I knew I wanted someone to help me with what I wanted to see progress in, especially on the serve. Adding Matt to the team has been really great. Obviously JC, I’ve worked with him before. I think he has very good insight, into an all-court game. Yeah, I think the two blend together well.” She wanted someone who’d help her improve for the long-term and with her performance in her first match at the WTA Finals, we can definitely say she’s on the right track! What do you say about this inclusion and its impact?