Coco Gauff Snubbed as Compatriots Pegula and Keys Outshine Her on Serena Williams’ Ex-Coach’s Exclusive WTA List

Coco Gauff’s Australian Open journey came to an unexpected halt, leaving her fans a bit stunned. Fresh off leading Team USA to victory at the United Cup, many hoped she would carry that momentum into Melbourne. But the tennis gods had other plans, and the young star’s campaign came to an early conclusion. As if bowing out of the tournament wasn’t enough of a sting, Gauff found herself absent from a rather high-profile conversation. And igniting the stir is Serena Williams’ former coach, Rennae Stubbs.

The American tennis sensation played her last match at the Australian Open on Tuesday against Paula Badosa. She was left baffled with the Spaniard winning the match in straight sets 7-5, 6-4. Now, just after her exit from Melbourne, Stubbs has opened up on the list of female players with the best forehand on tour and interestingly, it does not include Gauff’s name.

Taking to X, a user requested Stubbs to rank the current women players based on their forehand. Responding to this, the 53-year-old wrote, “Tough one… Keys, Sabalenka, Swiatek, Zheng, Paolini, Navarro, Badosa, Pegula, Rybakina, Vekic. They’re all a little different and clearly they’re all good but that’s my best guess.” Interestingly, the first three names in the list have also made it to the semi-finals of the first grand slam of this year. And as far as Gauff is concerned, she was seen struggling quite a lot with her forehand even in her quarterfinal clash.

During the match, Gauff finished with 41 unforced errors, which included six double-faults, and 28 missed forehands. In one of the games in the second set in which 22 points were played, Gauff missed two forehands. Besides, of the 12 points won by the Spanish star in the game, 11 came due to Gauff’s mistakes. And hence, Stubbs’ assessment holds immense value. This, however, is not the first time when Gauff’s forehand has sparked conversations.

In September last year, Rick Macci shared a similar take and wrote on X, “Once her (Gauff’s) Forehand and Serve get tweaked biomechanically she will someday be Number One on the Planet and be Rock Solid as Granite.” But as far as the 20-year-old is concerned, she is not being taken aback even by her latest defeat. Despite acknowledging that she has areas to improve, Gauff is beaming with pride in her abilities. 

Coco Gauff depicts immense resilience after Australian Open exit

Coco Gauff’s defeat came as a major surprise for her fans and the tennis community. Especially, because it came against a player who never made it past the quarterfinals in a Grand Slam throughout her career so far. But despite the upset, Gauff is not ready to bow down and remains stoic in the face of adversities.

Speaking in her off-court interview, Gauff said, “I feel like (at the) U.S. Open, I was playing with no solution, so that was more the frustrating part. Today, I feel like I’m playing with solutions; I know what I need to work on. U.S. Open, I needed to work on my serve. Not saying that my serve is where I want it to be, but I worked on it; obviously a big improvement. So I want to continue working on that, continue working on playing aggressive,” Continuing further, the American exuded pride in her campaign in Australia.

“So I feel like I’m on the road to the right way, the right path. Even though I lost today, I feel like I’m in an upward trajectory,” Gauff added. Now, as the season unfolds, it will be interesting to see if things change for Gauff and she can clinch more titles in major tournaments.