By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday September 29, 2024
After parting methods with Brad Gilbert after a 14-month partnership that produced her maiden main title, Coco Gauff has shored up her group, including Denis Shapovalov’s coach Matt Daly.
Gauff, who reached the spherical of 16 at Beijing on Sunday and is now 2-0 with Daly as her head coach, says she hopes to proceed the partnership for the remainder of the season and into 2025. The 20-year-old American may even proceed her relationship with longtime coach Jean-Christophe Faurel.
Daly, 45, performed faculty tennis at Notre Dame, and graduated from South Bend in 2001. He reached 941 within the ATP rankings in 2003.
Daly co-founded Grip MD together with Mark Merklein (a present co-coach of Jessica Pegula). In accordance with Fb he makes a speciality of serving to gamers make grip modifications: “Since graduating, Matt has been teaching each extremely ranked juniors and professionals for twenty years, specializing in method and particularly, grip modifications. Matt has additionally labored with a number of high 100 ATP gamers on grip modifications.”
Gauff Targets Improved Serve
No.1 focus for sixth-ranked Gauff is to shore up the serve that plagued her throughout her US Open title protection. The American’s serve went off the rails throughout her fourth-round loss to Emma Navarro as she tossed in 19 double-faults in her second consecutive loss to her rival.
“There are different elements of my recreation that I need to work on, too, however the focus proper now’s the serve,” Gauff advised WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen this week. “After I serve effectively, I play fairly effectively. For me, that is the idea for my recreation.”
Gauff says the modifications might be delicate, moderately than drastic.
“Already, the little bit we have performed has made a drastic enchancment to the place I used to be three weeks in the past,” she stated. “At this level, there’s not a loopy quantity, like going by means of an entire method change or resetting all the things. It is simply delicate issues that, doing it for per week now, will assist me.”
Gauff will face both Naomi Osaka or Katie Volynets within the spherical of 16 at Beijing.
