Whether the source of Gauff’s struggles is bio-mechanical or mental amounts to a chicken-or-egg question. One thing certain is that she isn’t the first elite pro forced to deal with it. The list of players who have been in the heebee-jeebee zone, sometimes on a temporary basis, is a long and distinguished one. Among them: Aryna Sabalenka, Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva, Guillermo Coria and Anna Kournikova. In 2019, Alexander Zverev had a case of the yips, averaging over 13 double faults per Grand Slam match, including one 20-double fault performance in Cincinnati. And who can forget then WTA No. 1 Dinara Safina’s seven double faults in the 2009 Roland Garros final—including down match point?
“Coco, to me, is more resilient than a lot of those people,” Brad Gilbert, who coached Gauff for 14 months ending in late 2024, told me recently. “Even with the serve issues, she still won the French. She still won two majors. She’s still finished in the Top 3 in the world. I feel like if you got the yips, this mental thing, your ranking is dropping, and fast.”
The more pressing questions at the moment are, What—if anything—is wrong with Coco’s serve, and where does she go from here?
