Coco Gauff’s title defense at the 2025 WTA Finals got off to a rocky start. In the all-American duel in the Stefanie Graf group, she succumbed to compatriot Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-2 in a grueling opening round-robin match that lasted two hours and 12 minutes. No wonder her fans were not thrilled with ghosts of the past returning for the world No. 3.

“Jess Pegula defeats defending champ Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-2 at the WTA Finals,” journalist José Morgado reported on X. “Gauff hit 17 (!) double faults… Pegula now leads then h2h 5-3.”

The match began in a bizarre fashion. With the first five games all going to the returner, both players had early service struggles on Riyadh’s fast, high-bounce courts. However, Pegula managed to steady herself, while Gauff struggled to control her inconsistent service. Ultimately, the world No. 5 capitalized and broke Gauff’s serve nine times to secure a vital victory in her fourth appearance at the season-ending championships.

Gauff’s problems persisted throughout the opening set.

She committed five double faults, 19 unforced errors, and won a meager 34% of points on her serve. This theme continued to be the story of the match. In the final set, Pegula struck just eight unforced errors to Gauff’s 18.

The Wuhan Open champion from last month won only 48% of her total service points compared to Pegula’s 56% as Pegula broke in 9/18 opportunities but was only broken 5/8 times by Gauff in the entire match.

As it turned out, Gauff’s weak point was exactly where Pegula targeted.

“Coco’s a great champion, great competitor, good friend, so it’s always tough playing her,” Pegula said during her post-match interview. “It’s always tough playing her. She was the last person I actually played in China, so we know each others’ games pretty well. I don’t think there’s any secrets with this group of girls, so I just tried my best today to execute where I could.

“I know with someone like her, who’s such a great competitor, she was going to switch up the game plan a little, and she did that in the second. I still had some chances to get the break back, get broken, and then the tiebreaker.”

Interestingly, the 21-year-old American already knows her weakness after becoming the first player in the open era to hit more than 400 double faults in consecutive seasons. That’s why she also switched her coach and had a different take on how she will view this season.

When Gauff parted ways with coach Matt Daly to bring in biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan, who is credited with unlocking Aryna Sabalenka’s serve, in August, she was willing to sacrifice the rest of the season if it meant correcting the issues plaguing her serve.

Their first aim, of course, was reducing double faults. But they also wanted to focus on kick serve initially and then move to adding spin to her serves. The results speak for themselves as Gauff is 12-2 since partnering with MacMillan.

Still, the 17 double faults were a glaring outlier on the stat sheet, intensifying scrutiny on Gauff’s serve, a known area of concern.

Coco Gauff got absolutely destroyed, and fans didn’t hesitate to weigh in

Although before entering the WTA Finals, Gauff had explained how she was satisfied with where she was, her followers don’t believe the same. Being world No. 3, she understands where she fails. But fans noted down the flaws with some harsh judgment, “Coco Gauff is incompetent. She can’t serve, how she is number 3 overall is really a condemnation on the state of women’s tennis.”

Some fans chimed in, saying, “Coco Gauff should go home lmao. 17 double faults is insane” and “Another Coco Gauff masterclass 17 double faults.” For those wondering, no, the American won’t return to her home yet. Next, she will be facing Jasmine Paolini. But the defending champion does need two wins to advance out of group play and into the semifinals. As for her serves, she had already tried to fix them from the first set to the second. Maybe she just needed time to adapt to Riyadh’s surface.

“Coco gauff played like a farmer she played absolutely and total trash!!!!!,” wrote another. It wasn’t the best outing for the American. It certainly contrasted her run in Wuhan, where she did not drop a single set. But we can hope that she will return to her dominating form as she takes on Paolini.

Gauff has been working on her longstanding double-fault issues and has definitely shown signs of progress, but old habits die hard. It is especially true when the schedule is packed, leaving little time to dedicate to making such improvements.

“Coco Gauff needs to change her coaches. Ain’t no way there’s still no improvement on her serves. She serves good asf! It’s just inaccurate ASF,” a Gauff believer sided with her but also suggested what needs to be done. However, it is important to note how she was already set to give up this season if it meant long-term excellence with MacMillan.

There were definitely some improvements during the Asian swing, but her crumbling under pressure at the WTA Finals really says a lot. Still, her ongoing success at the highest level and those big titles show that her incredible athleticism, strong mindset, and top-notch groundstrokes keep her among the tough competitors, even with that noticeable weakness.