So far in the 2026 season, Coco Gauff has been in the news mostly for her struggles with her serve. Rick Macci, who has worked with stars such as Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams, has offered a solution to the American youngster.
So far this season, Coco Gauff has suffered a quarterfinal exit at the Australian Open, an opening-round exit in Qatar, and a semifinal loss to Elina Svitolina in Dubai. During the match against Svitolina, Gauff snapped at Gavin MacMillan, a serve specialist she hired last year, saying, “I’ve been doing everything you’ve wanted for the last 6 months.”
Rick Macci recently urged the World No. 4 to switch to a platform stance, where her feet would stay apart while serving, as opposed to her current pinpoint stance, in which the back foot meets the front foot.
“Coco and her serve is biomechanically better. Gavin identified the real problems and I see it is stabilized. But because she is double jointed and her wires are so free flowing she has more shake and bake that causes extra movements in the arm without trying. I would go to a tight platform stance and put her on lockdown from the ground be in a cylinder bubble and no more double,” Macci wrote on X.
Gauff is set to play at the WTA 1000 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, beginning Wednesday, March 4.
When Rick Macci Predicted Coco Gauff To Easily Reach Double Digits For Majors
Coco Gauff’s serving woes are not new. She hit the most number of double faults (430 in 71 matches) in 2024. The 21-year-old was again at the top for the unwanted stat in 2025 (431 DFs in 65 matches), with Ekaterina Alexandrova finishing second (300 DFs). After two months of the 2026 campaign, Gauff is yet again leading the tour, with 103 double faults in 14 matches.
Speaking to Tennis365 last year, tennis coach Rick Macci said Gauff would soon become the World No. 1 and stay at the top for some time.
“I think not only could Coco become No. 1, which she probably will anyway, I think she could stay there for a long time, because her backbone is better than her backhand and she’s an Olympic sprinter with a racket in her hand,” he said.
“She’s just such a great competitor; she checks all these other boxes. But when you’re out there double-faulting eight, 10, 12 times, or whatever, and you’re still winning, how good could you be when you’re only hitting a couple? I mean that’s like crazy, your mind has to be made of granite. A lot of girls would disappear into outer space. So I just have so much respect for Coco,” Macci added.
“But to be great, it’s a package, and if this serve could be modified, I have no doubt where she could end up – double digits (Grand Slams) is around the corner for Coco,” he concluded.
Gauff is the fourth seed at Indian Wells and could face Canada’s Bianca Andreescu in the second round.
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