Kim Clijsters gives her view on Coco Gauff outburst at her coach during Dubai semi-final

Coco Gauff’s serve has been under the microscope for over a year now, but progress has been hard to spot.

Even after she brought in Gavin MacMillan last August to help overhaul her technique, the same problems keep popping up.

Double faults have become a regular feature of her game, often creeping into double figures during matches. Alongside that, unforced errors, especially on the forehand, are piling up too. It all adds up to her giving away too many free points before rallies even begin.

The 20-year-old is working hard to find a way through it, but there has not been much sign of improvement yet.

Speaking on her Love All podcast, Kim Clijsters is among those offering some guidance.

Kim Clijsters offers serving advice to Coco Gauff

Clijsters thinks that all the attention on Gauff’s serve is not doing her any favours, starting: “In our first episode, we had Ons Jabeur on, and she talked about, like, why is everybody talking about her serve? She has a good serve. And that’s the thing that I think people, and the media, and you know, commentators at times too… Like, there’s so much focus on her serve right now that when she serves a double fault, everybody, like, jumps on it right away.

“And I think for her, mentally, you can only kind of avoid it so much, that it is being looked at as a weakness, and it is at times, but she at times serves really good as well. And I think that’s where, you know, I’m very intrigued about the fact that why at times she, you know, the double faults kind of build up.”

The Belgian tennis icon then commented after seeing Gauff appear to express frustration towards her coach during a match: “That’s the thing that I think for Coco, it’s going to take time and, you know, it’s all about the communication that she has.

“Okay, you know, we saw her get frustrated, which is totally fine, and I get the frustration, the disappointment in herself, in the serve. I totally get it, but it’s going to take time, and I think she’s going to keep having to put the time into it and the hours and a lot of times when it is that mental side of it, that is something that you can’t practice, right?

“You can say, like, Oh, let me get that feeling of, you know, being a little bit tighter in my arm or worried about my next shot. You don’t create that same kind of feeling and pressure in practice.

“And so she almost has to take those big matches as she had in the Dubai semifinal and really try to push and focus on, you know, certain aspects.”

Clijsters finished with some advice: “I always loved aiming at targets. I used to visualise targets during my match, even when they weren’t there, and that really helped me a lot as well.

“So, you know, there’s a lot of things that they can do, but, you know, sometimes less is more. I think, especially in this situation, there are so many people, and we’re talking about it too, right? Like, there are so many people talking about it. And so I think sometimes in her situation, less is more.”

Australian Open incident prompts changes in tennis

Even away from the court, Gauff has started to influence change in tennis following her Australian Open run.

Following her quarter-final loss to Elina Svitolina, she retreated into the Rod Laver Arena, where she unleashed her fury on a racket.

The moment was captured on camera and quickly spread online.

In response, Gauff called for more privacy for players, and it seems like the Austin Open was quick to respond.

They have introduced a ‘rage room’ – a private space where players can blow off steam without worrying about cameras or public scrutiny.

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