Former US Player Questions Coco Gauff’s Meltdown Towards Her Coach in Dubai

Former US player Steve Johnson has questioned whether Coco Gauff should have made a critical comment about her coach during her Dubai Tennis Championships defeat in the semi-finals. The 21-year-old crashed out of the WTA 1000 tournament after losing to Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in three sets.

Before heading into the Dubai tournament, Gauff had hit 50 unforced errors in her ten matches this season. She had hired coach Gavin MacMillan in August to help her deal with the issue, but she has been inconsistent with her serves, which has drawn criticism from former players and pundits.

However, in Dubai, Gauff averaged at least 12 unforced errors in each match. In her first three match wins at the event, she racked up 36 unforced errors, more than any player at the tournament. She was lucky to beat Elise Mertens in the third round as she had to fight back from a set down to win the match.

But against Svitolina, she ran out of luck as she hit 12 unforced errors. In the first round, she hit an uncharacteristic error while serving and turned to her coach, MacMillan, who was in her box, and said she had been following his instructions for six months, but it had not been working. Her meltdown was caught by the microphone and went viral on social media.

Gauff lost the match 4-6, 6(13)-7, 4-6 against Svitolina after over three hours. The American star showed resilience, one of her most powerful attributes, but her errors let her down as she won just 59 percent of her second serve points.

During a conversation on the Nothing Major podcast, Johnson said that he was among those surprised to see the reigning French Open champion make such a comment on the court in the middle of a match:

It looked like she was saying: ‘I’ve done everything you’ve asked and I’m still serving like this.’ That’s not what you want to be saying mid-match. I said that to my coaches a lot: ‘Why am I playing so badly?’ But that was more of a me issue. She’s much better than me. So you would expect her not to have those kinds of in-match meltdowns.

MacMillan is a renowned serve technique coach and helped Aryna Sabalenka get her serves right during their partnership. Last year, Gauff had complained that she sometimes practiced her serves to the extent that her hands began to pain her. Recently, she bemoaned that her work rate in practice doesn’t reflect on the court.

Former World No.1 questions Coco Gauff’s training techniques

Coco Gauff’s serve still remains a trouble despite six months working alongside Gavin MacMillan, who is a biomechanical expert. She also works with America’s long-time coach J.C Faurel. Before appointing MacMillan, Matt Daly, who is a biomechanics technician, found it hard to make Gauff’s serve better on the court.

After hitting over 85 double faults in just two months this season, questions are beginning to shift from Gauff’s coaches to her in particular. During the latest episode of Hard Court, former World No.1 Yevgeny Kafelnikov questioned Gauff’s style of training, as he believes it is part of the reason behind her poor serving technique:

It’s a mystery to me how someone with such experience can make such mistakes. I have a question right away: How is the training structured? I’m committed to the fact that I’m absolutely certain that quantity turns into quality. If you serve, roughly speaking, 1,000 serves, you’ll fine-tune it.

Gauff is expected to be back on the court at the Indian Wells Open next week. She’s currently the World No.4 after Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina toppled her early this month. Rybakina has a lead of over 4,000 points against Gauff, who was No. 3 for most of the 2025 season.

Also Read: Alexandra Eala Looks Forward to Competing Again at Miami Open: “That’s What Put Me on the Map”

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