"That she hasn’t worked on those things enough” - Renae Stubbs alerts Coco Gauff that recent problems could return amid renaissance in Wuhan

Coco Gauff has battled through a lot of problems in recent times, fighting her demons on court. It has looked that she has got the better of them, but six-time doubles Grand Slam champion Renae Stubbs believes that they may catch up with her again.

Now the world number three, Gauff has been competing with the top players in the sport for sometime now, despite only being 21-years-old. She has claimed two Grand Slam titles and multiple WTA 1000 titles, including recently defeating Jessica Pegula in the Wuhan Open final, adding another piece of silverware to her ever-growing collection and seemingly extinguishing her recent woes.

After winning Roland Garros, the American was riding the crest of a wave. She would reach a new high of world number two, swiftly closing on Aryna Sabalenka in the number one spot, and was playing some fine tennis with many predicting that she will go on to win many more titles in 2025.

While she has added to her trophy collection, the road has been rough for Gauff. Two opening round defeats on Grass left her motivated to pick up some big results in the North American hardcourt swing. This did not turn out like that, with her serve coming under scrutiny with a huge number of double faults coming from Gauff. She got in Gavin MacMillan who was there to help her with the serve ahead of the US Open, but that could only push her as far as the fourth round, losing out to a rejuvenated Naomi Osaka.

“She is the ultimate player of winning ugly,” she said on the Renee Stubbs podcast. This was quite true in this period, with a lot of her wins being gritty determined ones in tense matches.

However, things started to pick up for Gauff after a successful run to the semi-finals in Beijing. Her double-fault tally was slowly coming down from the dizzying heights it was once at, and she managed to squeeze through to the semi-final stages before being battered by eventual winner Amanda Anisimova. Gauff overcame this by winning in Wuhan, not dropping a set on her way to the title. However, Stubbs believes that Gauff's problems could catch her up once more.

“The thing about winning ugly is that it’s got to be stressful," Stubbs said. "At some point, how much is she going to be able to take ‘I can’t get a serve in the court. I can’t hit my forehand. It’s not like I’m a bit nervous today.’ Jess Pegula’s her biggest issue is that her racket doesn’t feel great, or ‘I can’t feel the ball’, but she’s never like ‘I know I can’t hit a serve’.

“I would hate to walk out on the court and know that there were two weaknesses that were so glaring everyone knew about and as soon as I miss one or two of them be like ‘everyone knows I can’t hit my forehand in the court’. How many players in the top 10 are going ‘I hope I can hit that shot in the court today?’ and that is Coco. There were times she was double-faulting again. That was in the semis and in the final, but she just keeps going. She is built different."

While Stubbs relays her love for Gauff, she remains worried about her when entering major events, stating that she has not put enough work in. “I give her tons of credit, I love her. I don’t know if it’s the right thing because at some point again, in a big match at the majors, is it going to hurt her though? That she hasn’t worked on those things enough.”