EXPLAINED. Why Coco Gauff’s serve is so bad during this clay court season

Coco Gauff has confirmed that she has been trying to implement technical changes to her serve, which has contributed to her inconsistency throughout the clay season.

Gauff has not had a particularly great clay season so far, suffering a quarterfinal loss to Marta Kostyuk in Stuttgart and exiting the Madrid Open in the round-of-16. In both tournaments, Gauff struggled with her serve, which played a part in her early exits.

In Rome, Gauff’s inconsistent serving continued, but she managed to reach the quarterfinals following a hard-fought 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 win over Paula Badosa on Monday. Despite hitting 11 double faults and losing her serve five times against Badosa, Gauff secured seven breaks to clinch the victory.

Earlier in the tournament, Gauff faced similar serving challenges, recording 15 double faults in a 6-1, 0-6, 6-3 win over Jaqueline Cristian. Reflecting on her performance, Gauff said, “Yeah, I’ve been working on it. I think today, even though the double-faults were there, I think it was still a better performance than it was last night.”

Currently ranked no.3 (career-high), the American achieved a 25-7 match record in 2024. Gauff is currently having a run in Rome where she overcame the world no.55 Magdalena Frech 6-3 6-3

, the world no.68 Jaqueline Cristian 6-1 0-6 6-3, the world no.126 Paula Badosa Gibert 5-7 6-4 6-1 and the world no.7 Qinwen Zheng 7-64 6-1.
Coco Gauff will compete against the world no.1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinal. Their current record is 9-1 for Swiatek.

The American clinched 1 title in 2024 in Auckland.

Gauff won 7 titles in her career: 5 on hard courts, 1 on clay courts and 1 on indoor courts. (See the list of her titles)