What’s the cure for Coco Gauff’s “double trouble“? Well, this has been the talk of the town for quite some time now. Recently, after seeing her commit 16 double faults in her recent win over China’s Qinwen Zheng in the SF of the Italian Open, a lot of concerns have been raised yet again about her game. Last year, her ex-coach, Brad Gilbert, completed a “full circle” by bringing in one of the finest servers, Andy Roddick, to guide Gauff on her serving woes. Gilbert had, in fact, coached Roddick in the early phases of his career, and during his tenure, he also won the 2003 US Open. This time, Roddick came in to simplify the 2023 US Open champion’s motion. Speaking on this inclusion into the team, Gauff later said, “I don’t think I could have gotten anybody else better to kind of help me with that.” Did those efforts work for Gauff? Well, her serves have been pretty much up and down the radar still, and that’s exactly what concerns Roddick at the moment.

Despite her serving woes, Andy Roddick has always been a huge admirer of Coco Gauff. In October 2024, the former world number one even claimed that he has “full faith” in Gauff’s ability to fix her serving and forehand “yips“. But we’ve just fifth month of this year, and Gauff has already committed 151 double faults. At the Italian Open, her numbers are a bit shocking: 35 double faults in just five matches that she has played so far. How can she fix her serve? Well, both Andy Roddick and Jim Courier made a deep analysis during their recent conversation on Tennis Channel.

Courier said, “Many have tried. Andy spent some time with her, trying to help her as well. A lot of it comes down to the ball toss position. I’ve felt, at times, when [she hits] her second serve, the ball toss is a little too far forward and you can’t really go up at it.“ He believes it’s more like a confidence game. “Like second serves, you’ve to trust that it accelerates you get more control, and the more you try and baby it and push it, the more likely you’re to miss it. So, it’s weird, it’s sort of like skiing. You’re supposed to put your weight on the downhill, which seems stupid because that’s where you don’t want to fall.” According to him, in tennis, if the player doesn’t accelerate, then he/she is going to miss the second serve more often.

Adding more to this, Roddick used the example of rock climbing. He said, “You see these people and they tell you to lean back off the rock, you’re like, I’m not doing that. I don’t know, like that’s where death lies, right? So, I totally agree with you, Jim.”

Andy Roddick asked Coco Gauff to go all-in, “Coco..you know when it goes sideways, she starts guiding it a little bit. I think Jim is absolutely right. I’ve watched her step, three feet from her, she’s ripping it, and the net’s not even in play in practice, right? I think it’s just a matter of training that mentality, you kinda have to hit the bottom of the ball a little bit, or at least have the mentality to create speed and margin by kind of rolling over from the bottom.“

However, not only Roddick and Courier but even Serena Williams’ childhood mentor, Rick Macci, recently highlighted Coco Gauff’s major worry in recent times. Macci has been very vocal about Gauff’s serving woes recently. Previously, he claimed that her serve was “biomechanically disconnected“, but he believes her “second serve can be fixed in less than 1 hour.“

After seeing her recent win against Zheng, the renowned tennis coach came up with two tweets. In the first one he wrote, “Coco has the heart of a lion. She actually has 2 hearts 2 lungs 2 backbones a 2-handed backhand but 2 many double faults. This shows you how strong mentally this young warrior is, and once the second serve is Stable, number one is on the Table. @CocoGauff.” Then in another one he mentioned, “Coco gifted 16 double faults and still got the W. At the end of the Day, a winner finds a Way. @CocoGauff.” It’ll be interesting to see if Gauff can keep things tidy in her next match against Jasmine Paolini.

Andy Roddick is quite optimistic that Coco Gauff will keep things tidy in the 2025 Italian Open final

Resilience! Yes, that’s the secret to success for Coco Gauff in her previous match against Qinwen Zheng. It took her 3 hours and 32 minutes to win the battle by 7-6(3),4-6,7-6(4) against the Chinese. With this win, she has now become the youngest player to reach both Madrid and Rome finals since the inception of the Spanish tournament in 2009. In fact, Gauff is also the first American in nine years to reach the finals in Rome. She’ll now be keen to become the first American to win the title since her tennis idol, Serena Williams, in 2016.

What did she say after this incredible win, though? “Overall, I’m just happy. Wasn’t my best level at all, to be honest. Just happy to get through it and through to another final.” In the final, Gauff will take on the home favorite Jasmine Paolini. This will be her fourth meeting with the Italian, and she currently has an edge in the H2H record by 2-1.

Looking at the higher number of double faults in her previous match, there has been a bit of concern about her for the final. But according to Andy Roddick, “I dont think she’s going to make too many unforced errors against Paolini. But she’s gonna have to play better because that crowd will be kind of all over her.” He also added, “They’re going to be whistling if she hits her second serve halfway over the net. But this is nothing Coco hasn’t gone through before.“

Can Gauff overcome all these hurdles and add yet another feather to her cap with her title triumph in Rome? Well, that’d surely be a big boost for the American ahead of the French Open. Who’s your pick for the final, though?