What Would Make Coco Gauff’s Life Easier at the Majors? Fewer Three-Setters

A poorly executed drop shot on match point is the moment that will haunt Coco Gauff for days to come, maybe longer. But it isn’t the only thing that Gauff can improve. 

Asked to give her opinion on Gauff’s run to her first career Wimbledon semifinal on Thursday, Mary Joe Fernandez said that mission number one should be to find ways to win matches without too much drama. 

The former World No.4 pointed out that Gauff’s serve was vastly improved during Wimbledon, and it could open the door to more decisive tennis – and scorelines. She added that Gauff is human, she’s not the first player to make an unforced error on match point at Wimbledon and she won’t be the last. She also pointed out how well Gauff handled the tough moments in her post-match press conference. How she put her maturity on display and looked at a difficult moment with perspective. 

“It’s not a painful story,” Gauff said. “I think thousands of people would love to lose the semifinals at Wimbledon on match point. This is something I wouldn’t love to experience again, for sure no. I think it will make my next moment when I win a match like this even sweeter. I had a match earlier this year, I saved six match points.

“It’s just one of those days where it didn’t go my way. Somebody had to lose, and unfortunately it was me today.” 

Gauff’s loss means she has fallen to 25-8 in three-setters overall at the Grand Slams, and 19-4 since the start of 2023. That’s an incredible record, but one that she leans on too often.

Asked to pinpoint what she’d like to see from Gauff at the majors going forward, Fernandez said a few easy wins could be the key. 

“My other takeaway is that she plays too many three-set matches,” Fernandez said. “This was her fifth in a row in the tournament, and at some point, you have to be able to play a complete match from start to finish. You have to clean up the weakness. You just can’t have so many ups and downs, because that drains you. 

“It is just so tiring that you have to keep coming back, coming back, and just playing all those pressure moments. Going forward, I’d like to see Coco just manage this forehand a little bit better and continue to improve on the serve – she did have the bad double-fault in the tie break. I think that sort of brought her down –  just somehow… more straight-set wins.”

Former Wimbledon semifinalist Sam Querrey, also on the ESPN desk after the match, echoed those sentiments. 

“When you watch Sabalenka and Swiatek run through these tournaments, they get through those first rounds 6-2,6-1,” he said, agreeing with Fernandez. “She needs less stressful moments before heading into the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals of these majors.”