Change coach. Win next tournament. Just like Coco Gauff drew it up.
Taking advantage of what has become one of the biggest rarities in women’s tennis, an off-day for Karolina Muchova, Gauff took the China Open title 6-1, 6-3, Sunday in Beijing.
That is no small thing, given the tumult in her tennis life during the past month. After losing to Emma Navarro at the U.S. Open, Gauff broke up with Brad Gilbert, her coach of the previous 14 months. Gilbert, a renowned strategist, joined team Gauff during the summer of 2023 and helped to guide her to the best month of her tennis career, including her maiden Grand Slam title in New York.
Enter Matt Daly, a little-known grip specialist, who is now working alongside Jean-Christophe Faurel, a Frenchman who has coached Gauff on and off since she was 14. Daly, more focussed on technique than tactics, is in the entourage because Gauff needs more than strategy. Still just 20, she has technical issues and some mental blocks with her forehand and her serve that can produce strings of errors at the most inopportune times — not that there are any good times for double faults and forehands into the net or long and wide. Gilbert was a master of covering up those weaknesses, but when opponents figured out how to unwrap them, he and Gauff could do…
