"This is my hot take": Andrea Petkovic highlights reason behind Coco Gauff's recent struggles

Former Russian player Andrea Petkovic has highlighted one reason why America’s Coco Gauff is struggling with her service. The 21-year-old has struggled to produce consistent results recently.

Since the Australian Open 2025, Gauff has not played in the quarterfinal of an event. The one-time Grand Slam winner most recently featured in the Miami Open, where she was knocked out after losing in the round of 16 to Poland’s Magda Linette in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-4. In those matches, Gauff struggled to maintain the efficiency of her service.

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Former Russian player Petkovic was recently quoted in a report by Tennis 365, where she highlighted the reason behind Gauff’s recent service struggles. She was of the opinion that her new coach had made her change her grip, which has become the reason.

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“This is my hot take,” said Petkovic. “I think what happened when she hired the new coach, Matt Daly, he changed her grip on the serve a bit. My theory is, when you change a grip, with time, if you don’t remember it all the time, it goes back to the old grip – If you’re not constantly being warned: ‘Hey, think about the new grip, think about the new grip. In the last two, three tournaments of last year and the first two tournaments of this year, she had hardly any double faults, one or two per match. Now in the match against Linette, twelve double faults. In the match in Indian Wells, which she lost [to Bencic], eight doubles faults in three sets. Twenty-two in three sets in Indian Wells in the second round. She won the match in the end, but with 22 double faults. So, something is not right with the serve. My theory is that the grip has gone back to the old one, and therefore, it does not work at the moment.”

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