After becoming the first American woman since Serena Williams to lift the French Open title, Coco Gauff’s performance has surprisingly gone a bit off track. She made early exits from both Berlin and Wimbledon. And following that horrible campaign on grass, Gauff was knocked out of the Canadian Open, thanks to an upset by the 18-year-old Canadian, Victoria Mboko. The teenager took just 62 minutes to beat the world No. 2 in straight sets (6-1,6-4). However, more than the scoreline, Gauff’s constant trouble with double faults became the talk of the town after that. After all, 42 double faults in just three singles matches is bound to ring alarm bells.

“Obviously, I’m very disappointed with myself regarding that part of the game just because I didn’t play in Washington to work on it, make changes, and do well in training, where I was serving very well, so I would like that to transfer to the match,” she said, reacting to her serving woes. But amid all these concerns, Coco Gauff has now managed to clinch the doubles title alongside her compatriot, McCartney Kessler, in the Canadian Open.

They defeated the duo of Taylor Townsend and Zhang Shuai by 6-4,1-6,13-11 in this epic final. Gauff was playing in just her third doubles tournament since splitting with her long-time partner Jessica Pegula after the 2024 Paris Olympics. She had previously won this tournament with Pegula in 2022. Shortly after this match, Gauff shared a post on her IG stories, which featured pictures of her and Kessler with the “Champions” tag. She captioned that post saying, “lol temporarily came out of doubles retirement and got a dub!” Then, in another IG story, she shared glimpses of herself and her doubles partner posing alongside Townsend and Shuai after the match.

Coco Gauff is currently 183rd in the WTA doubles rankings, with the latest win marking her tenth title overall. There is a Grand Slam title among these as well, which she won alongside Katerina Siniakova at the 2024 French Open. In fact, it was partly because of that win that Gauff is not seen teaming up with someone as often as she used to.

“My goal was to always win a doubles slam. I’ll maybe play every now and then. I don’t know if I have the motivation to go week in and week out anymore like I was doing it,” she said during the US Open last year. “It is nice mentally to have a break in between, like, not competing and just go out and practice and work on the things.” Now, it’ll be interesting to see if this title triumph encourages her to play more doubles events this year, or not. But interestingly, Gauff has found something ‘weird’ when it comes to her serves in the singles and doubles events.

Coco Gauff explains the difference in her serve while playing doubles events

In singles, Coco Gauff has now played 44 matches this season. Although she has managed to win a Grand Slam already this year, her serving woes have time and again popped up on the discussion table. She has already committed over 250 double faults this season, and this can be a major concerning factor for Gauff ahead of the US Open—something that has been pointed out by tennis experts time and again.

While having a conversation on this topic during her podcast on August 5, Serena Williams’ ex-coach, Rennae Stubbs, said, “My God, like her serve, I don’t understand why now she has literally two coaches. Nothing has changed on her serve…like the ball toss is so far ahead of her on the second serve.” Gauff is currently coached by Matt Daly and Jean-Christophe Faurel. Following a subtle jibe at her team, Stubbs sent a few tips her way on how she can improve her serves and also advised her to follow her ‘idol’ Serena Williams‘ footsteps.

“I mean, my suggestion to her would be, after the US Open, no Asia. Just shut it down like Serene would do,” said Stubbs. She believes the fast, hard courts may prove to be a bit tricky for the American to handle.

But amid all these, Coco Gauff observed an interesting thing in her game. After her R32 victory against Veronika Kudermetova in the Canadian Open, she spoke about the difference in her singles and doubles game. “My doubles yesterday, I hit zero double faults, so it was just, like, okay. It’s definitely positive. I just would like to serve how I do in doubles in singles, but that was the reason to play is just to give myself pressure moments. You know, it’s weird. I feel more pressure serving in doubles than in singles because I don’t want to sit here and give the match away for my partner.” All she now wants is to try to bring that same mentality in singles as well.

If we take a look at her record in the doubles events this year, prior to the Canadian Open, she had played doubles at just two tournaments (Madrid and Rome). In both of those occasions, she was defeated in the QF. But now, she has finally managed to go past the finish line. Share your thoughts on her title triumph at the Canadian Open.