Coach Dehaes about how the serve can mess it all: "That’s a choice that comes with heavy consequences when it doesn’t work."
Let's dig more into the serve issues and how to deal with them. Also, Coco Gauff dumps Roger Federer to launch her own venture: What does that mean?
Welcome back!
In today’s edition:
The full version of my exclusive interview with Belgian coach Philippe Dehaes about the Coco Gauff situation and, more generally, about the recurring serve issues in tennis.
Musing about Coco Gauff Enterprises and her break-up with Roger Federer’s Team8, in line with the discussion we’ve already had around players’ personal branding and tennis storytelling.
Some break points
Answers to the Q&A
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On Thursday, I published a deep dive into how the serve keeps coming to derail top players, using Coco Gauff as the latest example of this tennis curse. In researching for this feature, I had a pretty long and insightful chat with the Belgian coach Philippe Deahes (former coach of Monica Puig, Daria Kasatkina, Kaja Juvan, Greet Minnen, Kristof Vliegen, Christophe Rochus, and Xavier Malisse). I obviously had to edit it for the general piece, but I’m bringing it to you in full here, with some parts that haven’t been used at all in the other feature. Like the part about the different coaching mindset in Europe and in the US, or how boys are throwing stuff and playing sports where you throw balls way more often and earlier than girls due to social reasons and that it’s maybe not a coincidence to see female players struggle with the serve as it’s a throwing motion.
Do you think the serve, once it starts being a problem, is the most complicated shot to fix in tennis?
In my opinion, yes, absolutely. It’s the only shot where you have time enough to think. Tennis is a reaction sport before being anything else. When you hit the ball, you perceive something, and really quickly, you need to anticipate, but most of the time, you are reacting, especially nowadays, where the game is so much faster So when you don’t have time to think, there’s something like a technical fluidity that sets up. You do things by automatism; you’ve repeated the same motion again and again, and so it all settles by itself.
But with the serve, once you’re behind the baseline and bouncing that ball, you find that you have the time to think. This is when issues can arise. Where am I serving? Am I going all in on the first serve or opting for a tactical choice instead? You might make the wrong choice, but you need to make a choice. And when adding to all this, you’re technically uncomfortable, then it’s getting harder, and that’s when the machine gets jammed.
So, regarding Coco Gauff, it’s interesting because I saw her train in China at the end of last year, and it made me wonder. She was with both coaches, and they were working on her grips. I told myself, “Wow…”. I mean, it’s Coco Gauff; she’s having steady, great results, so is working on her grips the right path? I remember it made me pause and think. It was quite something, really. And at the same time, yes, sure, let’s do it, but not here and now. I wouldn’t have picked that moment to do it; I’d have made sure we had enough time to work on that, like six to eight weeks to really set this up. But even if you have enough time for things to settle, nothing will replace competition. When you’re out there and have to play for real, that’s when it gets more complicated.
People from outside the game often can’t understand how something like that can happen to top players… But as you said, it’s one little thing coming in the way and sinking the whole ship.
Yes, and especially in the women’s game because the most important shot for them is the return. They’re not serving the fastest or strongest, out of a few exceptions, so they all know that the return is their biggest chance to enter the point the best way. So for the one on serve, well, it’s mandatory to be efficient on that shot because if not, they’re going to get the rest. And so it amplifies how mandatory it is to have a good serve, and that’s when you have to do something that you’re getting tighter and more prone to stress. It’s the famous sentence about “I need to or I must,” and it’s really tough mentally.