Despite the untouchable auras of star athletes, even the best of the best always require a little bit of help to get them to that place, and there are a number of people behind every tennis player to help better their stamina, posture and, yes, of course, serves! In the case of Aryna Sabalenka, the biomechanic expert Gavin MacMillan helped her to go from serving double faults to now being one of the best servers in the WTA tour! But now, the expert is shifting sides.

After Aryna Sabalenka and MacMillan parted ways, he was recently hired by Coco Gauff to help her with her serve, as the current world No. 3 hasn’t been having the best serving season, and has been a victim to many double faults herself. Since Gauff and Sabalenka are rivals, both at the top of the game, fans were keen to know what Sabalenka’s new plan was, considering Gauff now has access to her old secret weapon.

When asked what Sabalenka’s game would look like without MacMillan, the world No. 1 said, “I think we’ll learn a lot on the biomechanic side of the game. And um if not him, I’m pretty sure there is um some other specialist in this area.” Sabalenka seemed certain she’d find someone to fill the gap, if at all she would need them at this point in her game!

To contextualize this the tennis star then proceeded to comment on her progress from the double faulting days, stating,

“And if hopefully I won’t be um serving double falls that much and I won’t need someone like that. But I think I have really smart team…and uh people who went with me through a lot…and if we ever going to be looking into something like that, they’re going to be able to fix me.”

Clearly, Sabalenka has faith in her team and MacMillan’s shift to Gauff’s side should not phase her too much!

What are the chances of Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff facing off in the 2025 US Open?

A real test of the efficiency of MacMillan’s training will depend on whether Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka face off at the 2025 US Open and whether there are similarities in their serving abilities or whether one knows the secrets of the others game.

Coco Gauff is still working on getting her serve under control. In her first round US Open match where she played Ajla Tomljanovic (the player famed for defeating Serena Williams in her final professional tennis match at the 2023 US Open) Gauff did struggle and admitted this herself, “It was a tough match,” Gauff said in her opening speech, “I had chances for it to be straight sets, but Ajla was tough.” Though Gauff hasn’t perfected her serve or resolved the issue with the double faults, she made 10, she is a step up from where she was during the Montreal Open, where she made 23. Gauff is now preparing for her round two match in the US Open.

Aryna Sabalenka, on the other hand, has so far breezed trough her round 1 and round 2 matches, both of them two setters, and is en route to prepare for her third. In match 1, Sabalenka recorded 2 aces and 2 double faults, and in match 2, it was five each. Well, at least Sabalenka is making up for the faults with aces, and at least the numbers in total are not in the double digits!

If Gauff and Sabalenka do face off this year, the odds are looking good for Sabalenka, but perhaps MacMillan will want to use the match as an opportunity to prove himself, so you never know!

For minute by minute updates from the US Open, head to our EssentiallySports Live Blog blog.