After Coco Gauff struggled with her serve and retired in the fourth round of her second consecutive Grand Slam tournament, there has been growing support for her to part ways with her current coach.
Third-seeded Gauff lost in three sets to 13th-seeded Emma Navarro 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. The 20-year-old hit more double faults (19) than the winners (14) in Sunday’s defeat, as she struggled with her serve all afternoon.
After that defeat, more and more voices are calling for Gauff to fire her coach, Brad Gilbert, and go in a different direction.
Enter Nick Kyrgios. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), a tennis fan suggested that the Australian should replace Gilbert.
Kyrgios, who is regularly active on the social media platform, replied to the fan: ‘I would coach her.’
After Coco Gauff’s US Open defeat, people are calling for Brad Gilbert to be fired
This has led to Nick Kyrgios openly offering to replace Gilbert as Gauff’s new coach.
Gauff is an avowed admirer of Kyrgios, the former Wimbledon finalist, after defending it at the 2022 US Open.
During that tournament, Kyrgios was at the height of his powers, but he was also known for his fouls on the court.
He was caught breaking the rules when he spat in his own player’s court in the second round against Benjamin Bonzi and then smashed his rackets in anger in the quarterfinals when he lost to Karen Khachanov.
Responding to the spitting incident, the then 18-year-old Gauff said: ‘I know he does things on the field that people don’t agree with. I probably disagree with some things.
“Overall I think he’s a nice person. At least he’s always been to me. I remember the first time I hit with him, he probably doesn’t remember, I was 13 years old at the Miami Open. He finished his training, hit with me for, like, 30 minutes.
“It’s just things like that that stand out to me. That’s why I feel like I can never hate him.”
She gave another example of Kyrgios playing with her for an hour after a long training session with Francis Tiafoe at the Miami Open when she was 14 years old.
“It’s just moments like this that people don’t really see from him. So I think people paint him as a villain. I feel like he’s not, at least not in my experience with him.
Gauff has been an admirer and supporter of the Australian tennis star in the past
Gauff struggled with her serve and made several unforced errors in her loss to Emma Navarro
“I think it ultimately helped me in the long run as a player hitting with him. He told me good things about my game. At that point I thought, ‘Nick Kyrgios thinks I’m a good player.’ You start to believe that and get confident.”
Gilbert is openly criticized by tennis fans and former coaches.
Rennae Stubbs, the former coach of 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, spoke to the tennis panel, which also included Gilbert, on ESPN.
She openly questioned Gauff’s confidence and pointed out that her second serve was a major ‘problem’.
“Where’s Coco’s confidence?” Stubbs wondered. “There’s no second serve, that’s the sign. And that’s a problem.”
Stubbs continued to criticize the 20-year-old woman to her coach, admitting that she found it difficult.
‘So under pressure bad technique breaks down and her technique is… hard for me to say because Brad [Gilbert] sitting here…but her technique, the elbow, is too low, the grip is also a bit weird.
“So it’s difficult for her to hit a nice first serve and then a similar second serve,” she said.
Rennae Stubbs openly criticized Gauff and Gilbert on ESPN after Gauff’s fourth-round defeat
After her defeat, Gauff seemed aware that her serve was a tricky point in this match.
When asked if she would consider having a biomechanics coach advise her on her service motion – as Aryna Sabalenka recently did with great success – Gauff replied: ‘Definitely. I definitely want to hear other opinions, but I also think sometimes it’s more of an emotional, mental thing, because if I went out on the practice court now, I would be serving 30 times in a row. I’ve done it before.
“It’s kind of a mental hurdle that I have to take. But yeah, I definitely want to look at other things, because I don’t want to lose these kinds of matches anymore.”
Gauff also made sure to praise her opponent, saying of Navarro, “She’s a great returner. She does a great job just redirecting. She’s kind of an all-court player. She can do everything.”