COCO Gauff strengthened the coaching team until the end of the season and next year by bringing in Brad Gilbert after the US Open and now adding Matt Daly as coach alongside his old coach,
Jean-Christophe (JC) Faurel.
Daly, 45, recently coached Denis Shapovalov on the ATP Tour last season. Gauff started working with Daly a week before flying to Beijing for the China Open.
“I’m very happy. I think this will probably look like next year too. I’m very excited about the new changes and hopefully can improve other parts of my game,” said Gauff as reported by Antara, Thursday (26/9).
“Working with Brad has been really great and obviously we have a great partnership. I think it’s time to reset, freshen up and add some things to my game that I think I need to do to have a better season next year.”
The main priority for Gauff and her team is to improve her serve. Earlier this month, she attempted to defend her US Open title in the fourth round against Emma Navarro. He committed 19 double faults in the loss.
“There are other parts of my game that I want to work on as well, but the focus right now is serving,” Gauff said.
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“When I serve well, I play pretty well. For me, that’s the basis of my game.”
Don’t expect to see any new serving moves from Gauff this week. He described the new changes as “subtle” but he was already seeing a real difference in training, just to see the results in match conditions.
“The little we’ve done has made a drastic improvement compared to three weeks ago,” Gauff said.
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“At this point, there aren’t a lot of changes, like making a complete technique change or resetting everything. Just little things that, if I do it for a week now, will help me.”
The semi-finalist in Beijing last year is seeded fourth this year. She will face French tennis player Clara Burel in the first round on Friday (27/9).
The 20-year-old entered the Asian tour ranked sixth in the Race to the WTA Finals. She is trying to secure a place in her third consecutive WTA Finals.
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“I never felt pressured to get to the Finals except my junior year when I was trying to get there,” Gauff said.
“This year, it would be great to qualify and have an organized Finals, but I’m also not trying to put too much pressure on it because it’s a new coaching setup and I’m adding a lot of things. This tournament, we started the preseason early.”
“So I don’t think about it too much. If it happens, that’s great. If not, I’ll get an early holiday. It’s a win-win. However, everyone wants to get to the top eight, so it would be nice.”
Last year, Gauff arrived in Beijing exhausted after her grueling journey to her first Grand Slam title in New York. This year, he has extra enthusiasm.
“I did a lot more this time,” Gauff said. “Last year, I was so tired that I didn’t do anything. This time I adapted much more quickly and I actually made a visit to the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, which was really fun.”
“I was able to spend two weeks at home so I felt refreshed. Hope to finish the season well.” (Z-6)
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