Tennis icon Serena Williams believes that Coco Gauff has to have more confidence if she is to take her game to the next level.
Gauff was knocked out of the US Open fourth round against fellow American and 13th seed Emma Navarro 6-3 4-6 6-3.
After winning the grand slam in 2023, the 20-year-old had hoped to follow up with another slam success this year, but ends the season without.
This comes after reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open and French Open, before being eliminated in the fourth round of both Wimbledon and the US Open.
Gauff struggled with her serve against Navarro, making only 46% of her first serves and hitting 19 double faults.
Speaking after her defeat, Gauff said: “I fought really hard today. I just didn’t take care of my serve, so that was the biggest difference.
“Mentally and emotionally I gave it my all. Of course, there were things execution-wise, where I wish I could serve better.
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“I think if I would did that, it would have been a different story for me in the match.”
Working as a pundit for ESPN, Williams – a 23-time grand slam winner – assessed the performance of Gauff.
But instead of blaming her serve for her downfall, Williams said that the youngster needs to work on her self-belief.
Speaking to ESPN, Williams said: “I feel like she has a good serve.
“I think that it can obviously be better, but I feel like she’s so young. She has the rest of her career to just improve.
“I wouldn’t change anything on her forehand. I’ve seen a lot of interesting forehands. And listen, if you’re just confident in whatever you have, keep it up, and just be confident about it.
“That’s literally all she needs to do is just have confidence, whether she’s hitting it with her wrist or elbow. Just have confidence doing it.”
Gauff is a huge talent who has the potential to dominate women’s tennis for many years.
