Jimmy Connors is urging Coco Gauff to make the most out of her upcoming offseason and “stop beating yourself” in matches.
After bouncing back positively during the Asian swing (won Wuhan and reached the Beijing semifinal), Gauff didn’t impress at the WTA Finals as she exited the tournament in the group stage. During an opening Riyadh loss to Jessica Pegula, the world No. 3 stunningly hit 18 double faults and lost her serve nine times.
The reigning French Open champion managed to get the job done against Jasmine Paolini to keep her semifinal chances alive, but then got bounced by Aryna Sabalenka in her last group match.
Against Sabalenka, Gauff actually made a positive start as she served for the opening set at 5-4 and had a 30/0 lead on her serve. But then, everything went downhill for the 21-year-old as she allowed Sabalenka to come back in the first set and ultimately register a straight-set 7-6 (3) 6-2 win. The American sprayed six double faults and lost her serve four times during the match.
Connors to Gauff: Don’t beat yourself… You’ve got multiple weeks to regroup and improve
“Make your opponent beat you. Don’t beat yourself. She’s got six or seven weeks to regroup and not continue to try to improve and do things on the fly. That’s hard to do, to go in and be put under the pressure of winning matches, tournaments, beating the best players when you’re trying to make changes. Changes are to be made in the off-season, not when you’re trying to win a title,” Connors said on his podcast.
Truth be told, it certainly wasn’t ideal for Gauff to try to fix her serve on the go since hiring biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan in August. But now that the American’s 2025 season is over, she has time to focus on improving her serve but also some other parts of her game.
