A year ago, Coco Gauff wept alone on rain-soaked practice courts, her serve unraveling beneath the weight of a home Slam's expectations. Now, at 22, she has returned to Flushing Meadows not merely repaired but reborn — the very shot that once betrayed her transformed, through patient technical work and hard-won self-belief, into a weapon she trusts. Her story is a quiet reminder that the distance between collapse and mastery is often measured not in talent, but in the willingness to rebuild from the foundation up.
Gauff's serve transformation powers US Open return
Now I can look back and think, 'Wow, it's a big difference'
Mark
So what actually changed between last year and now? Was it just the coaching?
Mimi
The coaching was the foundation, but it wasn't magic. MacMillan worked on three specific things—the toss, the wrist position, the follow-through. Small mechanical adjustments that compounded.
Luke
But here's what I want to know: how much of this is the technique fix, and how much is just that she's had a year to process it? The Cincinnati title came before this match, so we know the technique was working. But against Sonmez, a first-round opponent, we're seeing confidence. That's different from proving it works against top-ranked players.
Mimi
That's fair. Gauff herself said the psychological shift is huge. She went from hoping serves land to targeting aces. That's not just mechanics—that's belief.
Mark
Did she still double fault in this match?
Mimi
The source doesn't specify, but it mentions she still leaks some double faults. So it's not perfect. But the first-serve points won—93 percent in the first set—that's the real story.
Luke
Right. And that's against Sonmez, who is ranked where exactly? Because if Gauff's serve is truly transformed, we need to see it hold up against someone who can actually return a first serve.
Mimi
The source doesn't give Sonmez's ranking. But Gauff is seeded fourth, so the draw should get harder from here.
Mark
What does MacMillan say about the progress?
Luke
He doesn't appear in the article. We only have Gauff's account of what he told her to do. That's a gap.
Mimi
True, but Gauff's own words about the shift—from "I hope I make it in" to "I'm going for the ace"—that's powerful enough.
Mark
So the real question is whether this holds up in the second round and beyond.
Luke
Exactly. One match against a first-round opponent doesn't prove the yips are gone. It proves she had a good day.
Der Puls
- The serving yips that drove Gauff to practice alone in the rain last year had fractured something deeper than mechanics — they had eroded her belief in a shot every tennis player depends on.
- Hiring biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan days before a home Grand Slam was a desperate gamble that initially failed, costing her a fourth-round exit marked by visible distress.
- MacMillan's precise adjustments — a cleaner toss, a straighter wrist, a corrected ball position — compounded into a serve that is now both faster and more accurate, a combination she had never previously achieved.
- Against Sonmez, Gauff won 93 percent of first-serve points in the first set, firing aces between 112 and 120 miles per hour and closing the match with three consecutive unreturned first serves.
- The psychological shift may matter most: where she once silently hoped the ball would land in, she now steps to the line targeting aces — and the tournament's stiffer tests will reveal whether that confidence holds.
A year ago, Coco Gauff wept alone on rain-soaked practice courts, her serve unraveling beneath the weight of a home Slam's expectations. Now, at 22, she has returned to Flushing Meadows not merely repaired but reborn — the very shot that once betrayed her transformed, through patient technical work and hard-won self-belief, into a weapon she trusts. Her story is a quiet reminder that the distance between collapse and mastery is often measured not in talent, but in the willingness to rebuild from the foundation up.
A year ago, Coco Gauff stood alone on the US Open practice courts in the rain, hitting serves through tears. The serving yips had taken hold of the two-time major champion, and no amount of desperate repetition seemed to fix them. A fourth-round exit followed, defined by visible distress and the sense that something essential had broken.
Twelve months later, Gauff arrived at Flushing Meadows transformed. The fourth seed dispatched Turkey's Zeynep Sonmez 6-3, 6-4 in her opening match, and the serve that once tormented her was now doing the tormenting. In the opening game alone, she fired a 112-mph ace down the middle, followed by two more unreturned serves — the whole thing over in under 90 seconds. When Sonmez threatened a break in the second set, Gauff answered with a precise ace out wide and a 115-mph first serve. A year earlier, she admitted, she would have lost that game.
The turnaround had begun on the eve of last year's tournament, when Gauff hired Gavin MacMillan, the biomechanics expert who had helped Aryna Sabalenka overcome her own serving troubles. The move was born of desperation after a run of double faults at Cincinnati. MacMillan's adjustments were small but compounding: a cleaner toss, the ball no longer thrown too far forward, a straighter wrist. By the time Gauff won the Cincinnati Open title earlier this month, the data confirmed the shift — she was hitting closer to the lines while maintaining her speed, a combination that had previously eluded her.
But the mechanical fix was only half the story. "Last year I literally was like I hope I make it in," Gauff said after the match. Now she steps to the line targeting aces. In the final game against Sonmez, she hit three unreturned first serves just under 120 mph, setting up three match points and closing it out swiftly. The rain, the tears, and the desperate repetition of a year ago have been replaced by something quieter and more durable: a player who believes in her serve, and has every reason to.
A year ago, Coco Gauff stood alone on the practice courts at the US Open in the rain, hitting serves over and over, tears streaming down her face. The image captured something beyond a bad day—it was the visible collapse of a fundamental part of her game. The serving yips, as they're called, had taken hold of the two-time major champion, and no amount of grinding in the drizzle seemed to fix it. By the time the tournament proper began, she was already broken. A fourth-round exit followed, marked by visible distress and the sense that something essential had fractured.
Twelve months later, Gauff arrived at Flushing Meadows transformed. The 22-year-old American, seeded fourth, dispatched Turkey's Zeynep Sonmez 6-3, 6-4 in her opening match on Tuesday, and the serve that once tormented her was now doing the tormenting. In the first game alone, she fired a 112-mile-per-hour ace down the middle, followed by an unreturned first serve and another ace—the whole thing over in less than 90 seconds. When Sonmez managed to threaten a break in the second set, Gauff's serve became her escape hatch. A precise ace out wide, then a 115-mile-per-hour unreturned first serve, and the moment passed. A year earlier, Gauff said later, she would have lost that game.
The turnaround began on the eve of last year's tournament, when Gauff made a bold decision: she hired Gavin MacMillan, a biomechanics expert who had helped Aryna Sabalenka, a four-time major champion, overcome her own serving troubles. It was a drastic move, born of desperation. Gauff had been leaking double faults at the Cincinnati Open just before the US Open, and she knew something had to change. But changing technique days before your home Slam, where the pressure and attention are already suffocating, was a gamble. She lost that gamble last year. This year, she won it.
MacMillan's adjustments were precise and technical: a cleaner toss, the ball no longer thrown too far in front of her body, a straighter wrist. Small things, mechanically, but they compounded into something larger—a serve that was not just faster but more accurate. Analysis from her Cincinnati Open title run earlier this month showed the shift: Gauff was hitting closer to the line while maintaining her serve speed, a combination that had eluded her before. Against Sonmez, the numbers told the story. When Gauff landed her first serve in the first set, she won 93 percent of those points. Sonmez simply could not get the ball back.
But the mechanical fix was only half the story. The other half was psychological. "Last year I literally was like I hope I make it in," Gauff said after the match. "Now it's like I can look back a year on and think, 'Oh, wow, it's a big difference.' It feels good to come into a tournament feeling confident on that shot finally." The shift in her own mind was as dramatic as the shift in her technique. Where she once hoped the serve would land, she now aimed for aces. Where she once felt pressure to prove the fix worked, she now felt the serve was a weapon she could trust. In the final game against Sonmez, Gauff hit three unreturned first serves, all just under 120 miles per hour, setting up three match points. The third one came quickly, after a short rally, and it was over.
Gauff will face either Spain's Paula Badosa or Australia's Daria Kasatkina in the second round. The real test of her transformation will come against stronger opponents, in tighter matches, when the pressure mounts again. But for now, the image that defined her US Open a year ago—the rain, the tears, the desperate repetition—has been replaced by something else: a player who believes in her serve, and has every reason to.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
Now it's like I can look back a year on and think, 'Oh, wow, it's a big difference.' It feels good to come into a tournament feeling confident on that shot finally.— Coco Gauff
Last year I literally was like I hope I make it in. Now I'm going for the ace, or I know I can hit the serve and the return is probably not going to come back.— Coco Gauff
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