(Reuters) – World number six Coco Gauff said ironing out the flaws in her serve would be her main focus after the American added Matt Daly to her coaching team alongside long-time mentor Jean-Christophe Faurel ahead of the China Open.
Gauff won her first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open last year under Brad Gilbert but split with the noted coach this month after her title defence ended in a frustrating defeat by Emma Navarro in the fourth round where she produced 19 double faults.
“There are other parts of my game that I want to work on too, but the focus right now is the serve,” Gauff told the WTA Insider in Beijing after confirming the addition to her staff.
“When I serve well, I play pretty well. For me, that’s the basis for my game … Already, the little bit we’ve done has made a drastic improvement to where I was three weeks ago.
“At this point, there’s not a crazy amount, like going through a technique change or resetting everything. It’s just subtle things that, doing it for a week now, will help me.”
Gauff said she was excited to work with the 45-year-old Daly, who previously coached Denis Shapovalov.
“I think this is probably what it will look like next year too. I’m super excited for a new change and hopefully to improve other parts of my game,” Gauff said.
“Working with Brad was really great and obviously we had a great partnership. It was just time to do a reset, a refresh and add some things in my game that I felt like I need to do to have a better season next year.”
Gauff will meet Frenchwoman Clara Burel in her opening match in the Chinese capital this week.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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