Coco Gauff Insists She Trusts Her Coach Despite Recent Poor Results on Tour

Coco Gauff has admitted she trusts her coach, Gavin MacMillan, despite her recent run of poor results on tour. MacMillan joined Gauff’s team in August with the aim of addressing her much-talked-about serving issues, but it currently seems things have not improved as many expected.

In 2025, Gauff had more double faults than anyone else on the WTA circuit, and that issue has persisted in 2026. At the Doha Open last week, she crashed out in the second round after losing to Elisabetta Cocciaretto in straight sets. In the match, Gauff had five double faults, while racking up 39 unforced errors.

She parted ways with her former Matt Daly in 2025 after hitting more than 40 double faults at the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open. Her highlighted flaws at both events forced her to make a surprising decision by hiring MacMillan just days before the US Open. However, things didn’t go well at Flushing Meadows as she exited in the fourth round.

Gauff continued her partnership with MacMillan at the China Open, stressing that she has seen improvements in her serve and her movement on the court. However, she failed to win the WTA 1000 tournament, but earned her redemption in Wuhan, where she defeated Jessica Pegula to win the tournament.

This season, she has not gone past the quarter-finals of a tournament. At the Australian Open, she was expected to reach the semi-finals, but she crashed out in the quarter-finals after losing to Elina Svitolina, hitting five double faults and winning only 41 percent of her first serve points. In Dubai, she revealed during her press conference that despite the latest poor results, she trusts the process she’s currently having with MacMillan:

I feel like I’m trusting the process. I mean, I’m very tough on myself. It is easy to look at this and be like, I’m doing so bad. When I look at all my seasons, maybe it’s something I need to fix, but in all my seasons, I just haven’t done well here. I’m trying to figure out the recipe. Also in all fairness to this part of the swing, I think most players would agree they want to peak at the Grand Slams.

Gauff is the second seed at the Dubai Tennis Championships following the withdrawal of Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek. The 21-year-old claimed her place as American No.1 this week having previously lost to Amanda Anisimova after the Australian Open. She entered the Dubai tournament without a win in February.

Coco Gauff’s chances of winning the Dubai Tennis Championships

Coco Gauff has never reached the final of the Dubai Tennis Championships. In her previous five appearances at the WTA 1000 tournament, her best run was reaching the semi-finals in 2023, where she lost to her rival, Iga Swiatek. She reached the quarter-finals once after that and has not performed well since.

Last year, she crashed out in the second round after her fellow compatriot, McCartney Kessler, upset her in straight sets. She exited the second round of the Doha Open and Dubai Tennis Championships in 2025, making it her worst outing at the Middle East swing in her career. She has an opportunity to rewrite her story at the tournament.

She will face the winner between Jelena Ostapenko and Anna Kalinskaya in the second round of the tournament after earning a bye. Should she progress to the third round, she’s likely to face fellow compatriot Emma Navarro, while she could have a possible match-up against Jasmine Paolini in the quarter-finals.

Top seed Elena Rybakina could be her opponent in the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 tournament. Rybakina comes into the Dubai Tennis Championships having reached the quarter-finals of the Doha Open and won the Australian Open last month. Should she win the tournament, she will get to a new career-high ranking of World No.2.

Also Read: Amanda Anisimova Discusses Her Desire to Win Her Maiden Grand Slam this Year

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