Coco Gauff has been told there is a quick fix to her persistent issues.
The 20-year-old suffered an early exit in the WTA 1000 event in Doha on Tuesday as familiar flaws plagued the world No.3.
Gauff had begun the year in red-hot form, winning the first nine matches of her season for the third time in her career.
But since Australian Open quarterfinal defeat to Paula Badosa in Melbourne in January, the American has not been back out on the court until defeat this week in her first game back.
Serena Williams’ ex-coach Rick Macci was watching on as the third seed lost to Marta Kostyuk in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5.
Gauff seemed to take control in the second set when she saved two break points to consolidate a 4-2 lead but not for the first-time issues with her serve and forehand began to appear.
The third seed recorded seven double faults, 39 unforced errors, win just 33% of her second serve points and was broken four times in her nine service games.
It meant Kostyuk stormed to victory as she secured the next five of the final seven games to send Gauff the same way as world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.
The 2023 US Open champion had won her last 17 matches against opponents ranked outside the top 20 before losing to world no.21 Kostyuk.
Gauff’s serving and forehand issues are all too common, having reared their head in her last-eight defeat to Badosa in Melbourne.
Macci has taken to social media and backed Gauff to bounce back providing she can solve the underlying issues that she needs to fix that opponents keep exploiting.
“Coco will be fine as she is a fighter and has turbo jets in her shoes,” the 70-year-old wrote on X.
“X factor for greatness is the second serve; not connected properly and the forehand is the same. When you’re confident, technical flaws can Hide. When you get nervous, they bubble up and opponents Seek.”
Whether Gauff can quickly improve these issues ahead of her next major tournaments remains to be seen as the flaws Macci points out have been with the American for over two years now, despite the arrival of new coach Matt Daly.
Gauff was knocked out in the fourth round of the defense of her US Open title in September last year when she hit 19 double faults – including 11 in one set alone – in a loss to Emma Navarro.
A month later in Wuhan, the American capitulated in a loss to Sabalenka, hitting 21 double faults despite being a set and 4-2 up.
She recovered to take down both Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek on her way to a maiden end of season WTA Finals title.
Macci has not been shy with her thoughts on Gauff, previously telling the ten-time WTA title winner exactly how to fix her serve and forehand.
“Coco and her second serve can be fixed in less than one hour,” Macci said last year.
“Once that is biomechanically rewired and that is in the EYE of the BEHOLDER the mental game overall becomes BOLDER.”
Luckily for Gauff the next Grand Slam does not happen until the end of May when she will head to Paris for the French Open, so there is plenty of time to work on her struggles.
For now, we will see the American next in action at the WTA 1000 event in Dubai on February 16.