Coco Gauff & other WTA players called out for 'neglecting' basic part of tennis by ex-World No. 18

Coco Gauff, along with the majority of players on the WTA Tour, were recently called out by American former player Alexandra Stevenson, who reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 18 during her playing days. According to Stevenson, most WTA players, including Gauff, don't have reliable serves.

Since turning pro in 2018, Coco Gauff has been lauded time and again for her athleticism and her ability to win matches because of her never-say-die attitude. However, at the same time, her serve and forehand have repeatedly come under scrutiny. Earlier this year, the two-time singles Major champion roped in high-profile biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan to fix her serve once and for all.

MacMillan previously worked with reigning WTA No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and the collaboration paid great dividends for the Belarusian. However, his work with Coco Gauff is yet to fully translate into something meaningful for the American on the court. Considering these developments over time, Alexandra Stevenson recently wondered why an athlete like Gauff continues to struggle with her serve.

"I don’t understand why, she should be able to fix it, she’s such a good athlete, but technically there’s issues within the motion and hopefully this guy (MacMillan) is fixing it," Stevenson said on an episode of the Inside-In Tennis Podcast.

Stevenson subsequently opined that coaches who have so far worked with the 21-year-old have wrongly tried to rectify her forehand technique before fixing the issues with her serve. The 45-year-old added:

"I haven’t seen her practices, but technically there’s like three things that she should be able to fix right away. In practice, that doesn’t mean under pressure…The serve and forehand go together, so the forehand was first, but it should have been the serve fixed first I think."

Keeping up the critcism of how Gauff's coaches have approached her serve and forehand, Stevenson went on to claim that most players on the WTA Tour these days can't rely on their serves as potent on-court weapons.

"I think they should have attacked the serve and then gone off the forehand, because when you don’t have a serve and you lose it, you lose your forehand, that’s just across the board in tennis. So they did it backwards, but they’re working on it and she’s still beating girls, because on the women’s tour now the serve is an issue," she continued.

Stevenson concluded her take on the subject by highlighting Elena Rybakina's example. According to the American, the Kazakh, widely regarded as one of the best servers in contemporary women's tennis, ruthlessly took advantage of her opponents' weaknesses at the 2025 WTA Finals. Stevenson also opined that the serve is much more of an issue in women's tennis than it is in men's tennis.

"Everybody’s serve could get better on the women’s side, that’s why Rybakina came out of nowhere and won the year-end (WTA) Finals against the top eight, right, basically her serve. It’s a fundamental thing that I’ve found in coaching, the serve gets neglected on the women’s side and that really bothers me, because it should be the number one thing worked on. As you see the men, the men don’t have meltdowns," Stevenson concluded.

"It's a fact" - Coco Gauff's father Corey acknowledges daughter's serve weakness

Coco Gauff (right) with father Corey (left) at the 2025 French Open (Source: Getty)

A tennis page on Instagram recently brought up the shocking statistic of Coco Gauff finishing the 2025 tennis season with the highest number of double faults (431) on the WTA Tour. Gauff's father Corey took notice of the post and admitted that her daughter's serve is an issue via a comment. At the same time though, he was optimistic about the World No. 3 improving her serve in 2026.

"Relax it’s a stat and a fact and an area to improve she will improve she always does the work doesn’t lie … will be hard to find someone working harder than her on her game …. 2026 she coming !!!!," Corey wrote.

The ending to Coco Gauff's 2025 season was bittersweet. While the American registered a title triumph at the WTA 1000 Wuhan Open, her title defense at the year-end WTA Finals collapsed earlier than expected, with the 21-year-old exiting the prestigious event after two losses out of three matches in the Round Robin phase.