As the lights of the China Open prepare to shine on Beijing’s courts, all eyes are on one of tennis’ brightest stars: Coco Gauff. She won the title last year, defeating the Czech, Karolina Muchova, by 6-1,6-3 in the final. Can she defend her title this year? Time will tell! But this time, it isn’t just her blistering serves or groundstrokes making headlines-it’s the sudden absence of her coach, Gavin MacMillan. What happened to him, and where is he? Finally, Gauff put an end to speculations about her biomechanics coach in the pre-match press conference in Beijing.

This partnership generated significant buzz during the US Open. If we take a look at Gauff’s biggest problem this season, then the first thing that pops up is her serve. She has played around 51 matches this season, but has already committed 347 double faults! Looking to cut down on her double faults and find consistency in her serve, Coco Gauff hired MacMillan, a biomechanics specialist who was instrumental in solving Aryna Sabalenka’s serving woes. While talking about the inclusion of MacMillan into the team, Gauff previously said, “It was, like, a very sudden decision. Gavin became available. I just felt this was the best decision for my game, and I had to go with what I was feeling. I know Gavin has had experience with this before, so [I’m] hoping I can just take on his knowledge and see what can happen.”

At the 2025 US Open, Coco Gauff got knocked out by the four-time Grand Slam champion, Naomi Osaka, in the R16. However, if we look at the numbers, she played four matches in that tournament and committed 27 double faults. There were a few moments when we saw her struggling a bit, but she showed some signs of technical improvement on her serve. But fans were surprised to see her practising without MacMillan in Beijing, and this led to speculations about whether the two ended their partnership after only a few weeks. Putting all the speculations to rest, Gauff recently came up with a statement, saying, “I’m still working with Gavin, but he’s not here because we started last minute so he had other plans for this part of the year. We’ll be working with each other right when I get home from here.”

She further added, “But it was a good learning experience. For me it was a tough challenge I think mentally more so than anything just, like, kind of losing trust in a lot of things, trying to find that in that tournament. But I really do think that it gives me confidence for the future. I mean, second week kind of having some really low moments on court. So I’m looking forward to now feeling refreshed and happy, feeling like I can trust myself all over again and see how do with this mindset.”