After her emotional Wimbledon exit, Coco Gauff’s words: “I definitely was struggling in the locker room. I don’t like losing,” still echo with raw honesty. That fierce mindset fueled her rise after a Madrid stumble and an Italian Open heartbreak, ultimately pushing her to Parisian glory. But just when the fire seemed unstoppable, a storm struck again. The Wimbledon setback forced her to reset, taking a brief rest before stepping back onto hard courts in Montreal. Yet now, as she crashes out of the Canadian Open, doubts creep in. Did the decision to pause steal her momentum? In hindsight, Coco Gauff regrets the very move she believed would help her go further.

On a dramatic Saturday night under the lights of Montreal, Victoria Mboko delivered the shock of the tournament, blasting past top seed Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-4 in just over an hour to book her place in Monday’s quarterfinals. But this upset didn’t come out of nowhere. Gauff, though undefeated in her first two matches this year in Canada, had barely survived. In a chaotic opener against Danielle Collins, she fired 23 double faults and committed a staggering 74 unforced errors, yet clawed out a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(2) win. 

In the next round, she trailed by a set and a break to Veronika Kudermetova, hit another 14 double faults, but scraped through again. However, the chaos caught up. With her run cut short and only doubles left, Coco Gauff didn’t hold back. When asked why she struggled to find her rhythm in Montreal, the world No. 2 admitted what may have cost her a deeper run, “Honestly, I felt like in practice I was playing well. The last few weeks just practicing. I decided to take some time off and not play DC to actually focus on that. And maybe that wasn’t the right decision,” she confessed. In hindsight, those missing match reps might have created rust that she couldn’t shake off.

She reflected deeper, sharing a sentiment only athletes at the top can fully grasp. “Maybe it was better to get more matches under my belt, but you know it’s the first tournament in the hardcourt season, so I’m hoping that in Cincy and in New York I can find that rhythm.” Gauff, mature beyond her years, knows the balance between recovery and readiness is razor-thin, and this time, the scale tipped the wrong way.

After the shock exit at Wimbledon, Gauff made a calculated decision to regroup. Her schedule had been relentless since the French Open glory, and the SW19 loss hit like a hammer. The solution? Pause the tournaments and reset both mind and body. “Yeah, it was nice to actually have some time in between,” she had said ahead of Montreal. “That’s why I didn’t play D.C., because I wanted to just have a real training block, which I hadn’t had in a while just because of how our schedule is.” The plan made sense. The execution, however, didn’t pay off this time.

Now the focus shifts to Cincinnati, her home Masters, and then the bright lights of New York. The margin for error will shrink. Her second serve, a sore point again in Montreal, needs fixing. 

Are Coco’s double faults costing her big?

Heading into Montreal, Coco Gauff’s biggest opponent wasn’t across the net, it was her own second serve. With a staggering 37 double faults in her first two matches, the warning signs were already flashing. And against Victoria Mboko, though she limited the count to six, the damage still ran deep. She won just 12 of 27 second-serve points. On the other side, Mboko saved all five break points and converted four of five on Gauff’s serve. In a game of inches, that was the knockout punch.

The storm clouds around Gauff’s serve aren’t new. Even legendary coach Rick Macci, who once shaped Serena Williams, didn’t mince words, calling her motion “biomechanically disconnected.” He insists it can be rewired. After her messy win over Danielle Collins, Macci doubled down: “If Coco had an ATP forehand with style, she would go the extra mile… With her second serve, this can be rewired easily right from the ground and in 1 hour be a weapon and fundamentally sound.” His belief in her potential is sky high, but so are the expectations.

Post her victory over Kudermetova, Gauff herself opened up with raw honesty. Her frustration was clear, not with the effort, but with her execution. “I just would like for it to transfer to the match. And you know, it does give positives, that okay, like I’m not winning these matches having literally like one part of my game on a crutch.” That disconnect between training and match-day delivery is eating at her, yet it also lights a path forward.

With 43 double faults over three matches, the alarm bells are deafening. But with Cincinnati and the US Open looming, the question now is: Will Gauff count every fault and return as a stinger, firing not just with power, but precision?