When The Serve Gets In The Way

Coco Gauff is the last top player caught in a struggle with her serve. Why does this shot keep acting up? I asked several tennis experts who have worked with some of the biggest names in the game.

Welcome back! I hope you’re all doing as well as possible in this crazy world. I find Coco Gauff’s situation with her serve fascinating in how it represents again a moment to reflect on what it means to be a top player. It’s very tough for casual tennis viewers to understand how players at this level can suddenly lose a shot. It happened to Novak Djokovic back in the day, it happened to Aryna Sabalenka in 2022, and now it’s happening to Coco Gauff. I chatted with some of the top coaches on Tour about why it keeps happening and what to do about it. It’s not a matter of getting on Coco’s case; my gosh, she knows what she’s doing. It’s a matter of using that situation to wonder about that (damn) shot.

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Regularly, tennis gets into the serve-mania for all the wrong reasons. It’s like a recurring curse, and it can fall on any player, whatever their rankings. At some point, for some reason, a player becomes allergic to their serve. Or vice versa. It’s awful and embarrassing for the players, and at the same time, it’s fascinating for the tennis world. How does it happen? Why? How do you fix it? Is it going to be chronic? Whose fault is that?

“It is difficult, but you have to think of the long-term and the long run.”

Coco Gauff

Novak Djokovic went through it in 2010; Aryna Sabalenka had a nightmarish serve era in 2022-2023; back in the day, someone like Elena Dementieva never found a way to convince her serve to be at the same level of the rest of her game; and Guillermo Coria remains a serve cautionary tale. Top players aren’t immune and are the ones the tennis world start to come for each time it happens because they’re the most exposed ones, and now, the curse has fallen on Coco Gauff, who’s been fighting her serve since 2024, with great progress at the end of the year and a relapse in early 2025. So, it got my brain going again about that shot, and I’ve asked a few trusted experts all about it.

The Coco Gauff mystery is that by the end of 2024 and the start of 2025, she was flying out there! She beat Iga Swiatek twice and Aryna Sabalenka once, and she won Beijing, the WTA Finals, and the United Cup. Serve and forehand firing, as we were wrongfully shrugging the 21 double faults hit in her Wuhan loss against Sabalenka. “I have made change with that,” she said about her serve at the WTA Finals. “Obviously, it’s difficult. You do something you know one way for your whole life basically. Actually, I wouldn’t say my whole life. I definitely think I migrated as time went on. But it was for a long time. You kind of have to correct it, and you’re playing matches. Everything just feels fresh and new. It is difficult, but you have to think of the long-term and the long run. I feel like this is the right decision. When it was going well, it was going really well. I think I just need more time with it. I spent two weeks at home working on it.” Even Andy Roddick came to help her with that serve, by the way, in early 2024.

The puzzle seemed on its way to be complete, and Gauff set to battle for the Grand Slam titles and the throne on the regular. “In Beijing, I won that tournament, but I felt uncomfortable on the court every match,” she said with a laugh back in January. “I didn’t show it because I knew I wasn’t going to allow myself to get frustrated. But that’s part of working on your game… feeling uncomfortable in a good way, trying things you’re not used to.” But at this moment, The Game Was Happy. Yes, because tennis needs Gauff out there battling at the top. And because she deserves it. Obviously, in professional sports, a lot of athletes who deserve the greatest achievements might never get them. And so watching Gauff struggling ever since she lost this quarter-final in Melbourne this year has been a stark reminder of it.

One Shot To Derail Them All

Yes, I know about Gauff’s forehand issue but, as Belgian coach Philippe Dehaes (former coach of Monica Puig, Daria Kasatkina, Kaja Juvan, Greet Minnen or also Kristof Vliegen, Christophe Rochus and Xavier Malisse) told me, “Let’s not forget that the only moment her forehand starts to be an issue is when you find a way to hit very hard and very deep on it. If you give her a bit more time, she has no issues. Not everybody is named Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka, or Iga Swiatek, so not everybody can do this to her forehand. Yet, to win these Grand Slam titles, she will have to beat these players, so she has to find solutions.” It’s really her serve that is sinking her game and confidence right now, adding new pressure on that forehand.

In Melbourne, she came in as a heavy favorite, but even then, that serve started to act up again. She hit nine double faults against Sofia Kenin in the first round. Yet, nothing to worry about too much at the time, and we can also remember someone like Maria Sharapova finding ways to win despite her serve being nowhere near to where it was pre-shoulder surgery. Sharapova made a career out of ignoring the double faults piling. “Even if it’s uncomfortable, trying to focus on that long-term path, making sure that I’m making adjustments that I need to hopefully have a good career long-term,” Gauff explained in Melbourne.

Disappointed by her summer 2024 and the loss in the fourth round of the US Open, where she was the defending champion and hit 19 double faults, Coco Gauff took a series of very bold decisions: She parted ways with coach Brad Gilbert, keeping her other coach Jean-Christophe Faurel and adding Matt Daly. Daly came in with a clear mission of revamping Gauff’s serve, mostly, and forehand, and the whole team reinventing her game identity to a more aggressive version. Gauff took September off for that. And until the start of 2025, it looked like the gamble was paying off.

The major decision taken was surely to change Gauff’s grips. It’s a big move for a tennis player. “Daly had her draw a mark on her grip that told her exactly where to position her hand before each serve, rotating it back closer to the continental,” The Athletic reported. They nearly did the same for her forehand but decided not to.

“Initially, Gauff’s forehand looked to need a grip adjustment, too. Like Swiatek, she basically grips her racket from underneath the handle — a heavy western grip. Changing a forehand grip means changing the timing, the arc of the swing, and everything else about the stroke. Experts told Corey Gauff that it might be a nine-month project. Daly and Faurel didn’t believe that was necessary. The problem wasn’t her grip. It was her tendency to rely on her legs to grind and defend and hit with her weight going backward, which led her to swing up too much on the ball rather than through it, shanking it all over. If she did less of that and played more aggressively, prioritizing offense and attacking more, she wouldn’t hit so many forehands from difficult positions. Now, instead of using her legs to defend, Gauff is using them to get her in position to take the ball early more often with an aggressive, open-stance forehand.”

Never forget that this happened:

For her serve, the whole team went full-on for the revolution. Yet, months later, and a very disappointing - for her standards - start of the season later, the situation is becoming concerning. The changes that worked wonders at the start are now sinking her game and confidence. "It wasn't great today; it hasn't been the last two weeks, so I'm just trying to figure that out," Gauff said in Miami after her loss against Magda Linette. “Serve, return, forehand, backhand, everything honestly," said Gauff. "Just one of those days I felt off on everything. It's just a series of not having great results and feeling confident on the court.”

“In my experience, mental blocks in tennis usually have their genesis in the shot being unsound technically.”

Hugh Clarke

The thing is, as we saw in Indian Wells, she spends so much energy fighting her serve and mentally going through it that at some point in the next matches, she can’t find the next gear when she needs it. “We kind of changed a lot of things with the serve,” she said there. The whole thing leaves traces and dents her confidence too much. Gauff puts on a brave face and tries to figure it out, but her situation is a great example of how this shot is such a specific issue.

So, is the serve the trickiest shot to fix when it starts to misfire? Yes and no. “Biomechanically, the serve is not more complicated than the forehand or backhand, but since the serve is the most important stroke in tennis, together with the return, the mental pressure to fix a serving problem is high. Without a functioning serve, it’s not possible to be competitive. That makes it the most complicated shot to fix,” said Gebhard Gritsch, who’s been working with Novak Djokovic for years and has been a big part of the Serbian’s constant and successful evolution.

In his opinion, serve issues are the perfect storm leading to a mental block. “The importance of the serve demands a high standard of the stroke, and every player knows that the game is flowing smoothly only if the serve is working well. In high-pressure situations, therefore, it is likely that the player tightens up and the serve is not working well. This issue can become a pattern and needs a combination of mental and technical work to be solved.”

“The mental pressure to fix a serving problem is high.”

Gebhard Gritsch

Dehaes agreed for a simple reason: Serving is the only moment in the sport that gives you time 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 repeatedly, 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.”

It’s very interesting to see how the North American approach to this might be different. When I asked Montreal-based tennis coach Hugh Clarke (if you like tactical and technical matches analysis, I highly recommend his newsletter) why the serve might be the most difficult shot to fix, he told me it wasn’t. “I actually think the serve is one of the easier shots to fix in tennis, because it is the one shot in tennis that is a closed skill, that is, it is performed at the player's own pace, where they have time to plan and execute the shot, and they have multiple chances to put the ball toss exactly where they want it, and have two chances to get it in!. That's all a lot easier than changing rally ball shots where the opponent is trying to make the incoming shot difficult for you by virtue of hitting it away from you/at speed/with different spins, etc.”

Clarke agrees, though, that at some point, it can become a mental block: “Yes, it can certainly become a mental issue for a player, but in my experience, mental blocks in tennis usually have their genesis in the shot being unsound technically in some way. My philosophy with performance is that confidence FOLLOWS competence (not the other way around). Sport is about action; you cannot hit the ball with your mind.”

“I would say most of the serve problems are all biomechanics related but can turn into a mental obstacle”

Sven Groenveld

I’ve asked Sven Groenveld about how tricky the shot is and how it somehow finds its way into a player’s head. He coached so many great players (Monica Seles, Mary Pierce, Ana Ivanovic, Greg Rusedki, Mario Ancic, Tommy Haas or Arantxa Sanchez ) and with Maria Sharapova he worked through all her serve issues and helped her win despite of it all. What he highlights as both cause and symptoms is the toss. “The toss will become the biggest problem when the jinx comes as the level of anxiety determines the toss consistency or inconsistency. (…) The coordination is challenged even though it’s the only shot in tennis where total control can be optimized. The fact that the ball is above your head takes away your vision from your opponent and the placement, so you are forced to trust the process. Since tennis is so focused on a result-oriented game, this is reflected even more during the serve motion. (…) I would say most of the serve problems are all biomechanics related but can turn into a mental obstacle.”

Asked if these serve issues can slowly but surely get into a player’s head, Groenveld does not doubt it. “Due to the technology developments, we have been able to compensate with poor technique; however, under score-pressure the poor technique will be exposed, and the mental part will not be able to overcome the strain it causes on both mental and physical stress.” Dehaes feels it’s also what sets this sport apart. “Tennis remains such a specific sport because you can get the best material in the world and train the best you can, but what really makes the difference in the end is what’s going on in your head, in the control tower. All the time. You can try to master all the parameters, but when the match starts, you can’t be fully sure what will happen.”

I’m still curious: Why is the serve so often the one that comes in the way? Why is that shot so tricky to master? “The quality of the toss, balance, the prestretch, the core stability, the leg support, the stroke rhythm, the timing of the racket head acceleration, the right contact point and all this in a rhythmic precise symbiosis (coordination) is a complex challenge,” explained Gritsch. Clarke agreed that the skills needed for that shot make it a tricky one: “The serve is a difficult shot to master because it is technically one of the hardest movements in all of sport. There is also a time pressure to observe after you hit the shot; the opponent is ready to hit the ball back quickly, so you have to be ready to recover, and while hitting the serve, you have perhaps planned your next shot. In my experience, the most difficult aspect of the serve to grasp for learners is the internal rotation of the shoulder and the pronation of the arm required with a continental grip. It is counter-intuitive in that sense, but absolutely necessary to maximize a player's serving ability.”

The pressure on the serve is even bigger in the women’s game, as Dehaes explains, because of how the return is actually the main shot there. “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, it’s mandatory to be efficient on that shot because if not, they will get the rest. 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 tough mentally.”

It also highlights how we tend to underestimate the consequences of changing a shot at this level. Oh, these players are so gifted and have all the experts around; they can fix this and that in a few weeks. You keep hearing how a coach can show them something a couple of times, and it’s going to be assimilated. “Everyone has a different kind of learning ability. But I’m sure that Coco Gauff has no issue with that at practice, or they wouldn’t keep trying,” states Dehaes.

As we see now with Gauff and have seen with so many others, some changes are a huge risk. Sometimes it works wonders, as we saw with Sabalenka, who had a nightmare with that shot in 2022-2023 before finding a way to fix it with the help of a biomechanics coach, Gavin MacMillan. Sabalenka just couldn’t serve anymore, would hit over 20 double faults per match, and would cry on the court while having to serve underarm. Look at her now! Yet, it’s not a detail to go at a player like Gauff and start pointing at flaws and work on revamping a serve. “If we talk about Coco Gauff, then you look at her results, and despite what some may call a technical flaw, she may never have put a finger on a potential fault in her game until this moment,” says Dehaes. “It couldn’t be a flaw, a fault, if she weren’t aware of it. Then you have to wonder why they started the process, and surely it was for a very good reason. There was something to improve. And when you want to improve a shot, yes, the technique is a way in. But it’s a dangerous one.”

The Belgian coach watched them work in China at the end of last year, and he doesn’t hide that it left him wondering. “They were working on her grips, and 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 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.”

So the question remains: How do you rebuild a shot like the serve at this level? And how do you keep doing it while the results don’t follow? It’s an unfortunate situation for Gauff and, simultaneously, a fascinating one for the tennis world. She will figure this out, and so her journey to do so is a fantastic learning curve for other players and anyone interested in tennis at the highest level.

“If you need to do it, you need to find the time. In six weeks, you can fix things.”

Philippe Dehaes

The first thing is to keep an analytic brain about all this, it seems. And a cold head. “The best way is to adopt a natural, bimechanical approach. The first step is to analyse the serve and identify the main issues of trouble. Before starting to correct details, go back to basics, find a natural, balanced starting position, and find your natural swing in a relaxed way. When correcting your swing pattern, make sure you release tension first before every try. (…) Biomechanic is the natural movement in an efficient, safe way. If any joint is challenged in an extreme range of motion, then movement needs readjustment,” says Gebhard Gritsch.

It’s obviously a tailor-made approach, but these days, as Hugh Clarke explains, players and their teams have the resources to find what’s best working for them. “Rebuilding a serve depends on what exactly needs to be changed. In Zverev's case, it wasn't so much a technical change as a change in ball toss height (he lowered it, which meant his legs didn't pause at the bottom of his squat and lose their stretch-reflex ability, and it kept the racquet head moving faster in the backswing). So, something like a Zverev serve change is more rhythm-related. Sabalenka had an actual technical change with how her toss arm moved, and that can be a little tougher, although I think moving the hitting arm and making technical changes to that position is the hardest on". (…) These days, most players have access to high-speed footage of their own shots and everyone else’s. With that as a tool, we can isolate the commonalities between great shot exponents (e.g., Roddick/Federer/Mpetshi Perricard/Kyrgios, Serena/Venus). Then, coaches can go to biomechanic experts or technical consultants and ask for their input on what can be changed. Or they might go to a former great and ask them for advice (e.g. Coco working with Roddick).”

Sven Groenveld hit on something that makes sense but is also tough to do nowadays, when he told me the best way to work on the shot “depends on the person and the willingness to focus on development instead of results”. Here, he touches on the crux of the matter: time. To solve these technical issues, you need not only training time but also competition time to set this up fully. Yet, at Gauff’s level, where the ambitions are sky high, you have very little time for this. We come back to a schedule issue, too: Where do you even find the weeks needed to rebuild a serve?

“That’s surely why nobody does it, because nobody knows when to find the time for it, because the calendar doesn't allow it,” says Philippe Dehaes. “But you can still find the time at some point by the end of the season, before the Finals, or you decide to start the new season a bit later. If you need to do it, you need to find the time. In six weeks, you can fix things.” Gritsch agrees, “There is no doubt that schedules in professional tennis are not player-friendly and do not allow sufficient recovery. From the players' side, it is best to schedule the year in meso cycles that consist of active recovery, training, and competition weeks.”

“The greatest example of buying into the process of growth has been Sabalenka”

Groenveld

It, of course, can be done at the top of the game, but the task shouldn’t be underestimated. It demands finding the right timing and approach. And the margin for mistake is thinner than thin. “I think we see something similar with Alcaraz and Sinner -- both those guys have made changes to their servers and shots over the years as well, but with the heavy tour schedule, it does make it difficult to find the time work on something technical, otherwise you risk making a shot worse in the middle of important events/seasons. It's a balancing act and changes from player to player. Perhaps it is a talent in itself, having the ability to adapt. I'd say most try and make changes in the off-season, but it's not always so,” explained Clarke.

In this matter, Sven Groenveld insists on how one should praise Aryna Sabalenka’s achievements and also why the Tour needs to ensure the certified quality of the players’ team members. “The greatest example of buying into the growth process has been Sabalenka, who travels with an expert. Tennis is a sport where technological advancements and science are not embraced because we have too many people who are part of an entourage and are not qualified. Both Tours should start by licensing professionals and identifying those with a degree in sports science or tennis education. The tours lack the authority to implement this; however, I believe at Grand Slams we can start to see the recognition of true professionals.”

That’s when we reach the obvious, indeed: Revamping a professional player’s serve or forehand or whatever shot is a massive responsibility taken and a huge trust given. You don’t decide to go at someone like Gauff’s serve without knowing the consequences. In the coach's mind, where does the risk of messing it all up lie?

“It’s always a thought process,” says Dehaes. “As a coach, I always think about how much time I’ll have to dedicate to a change if I need to because the time we’re going to spend on that will be taken from the time we could have spent on improving something else. Then, let’s say you decide to make that change to, imagine, get a faster second serve: what’s the guarantee that it will work? None. The only sure thing is that you will spend a lot of time on that instead of dedicating that time to working on your strengths. And it’s getting even more of an issue once you start to really put your finger on a flaw, because then it demands a very strong player mentally to shrug all of this, decide it’s not a problem and that for sure they’re just going to change that grip.”

No expert is taking the “let’s change a serve” plunge without admitting it’s a risky move. “Every shot is a complex fine coordination that takes years to establish,” reminds Gritsch. “Establishing a completely new swing pattern would take many months, and to implement it into the competitive environment will be another big challenge. Therefore, major changes on the serve have to be considered very carefully.” So yes, owning the change of a shot that can potentially derail a player’s game is a scary decision to take. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, as Hugh Clarke puts it. “I think the fear of making changes is valid and warranted, but it's often up to the player and their disposition. In my opinion, a feature of great players is their willingness to experiment and adapt to get better, and we've seen that with the big 3; all changed shots and/or equipment and playstyles over the years to adapt to different players and fix their weakness/improve their strengths etc.”

It’s funny because I also see the other way of this, as how the Avengers era created this expectation for the best players to always get better. As if it’s easy and natural. So, playing the devil’s advocate a bit, why not at some point tell a player, “You know what, that shot is going to stay problematic, sure, but we’re at the best we can do with it and if we keep touching it, it’s just gonna get worse”? Dehaes says it’s plainly impossible to do. “It’s tough to tell someone who wants to be the best player in the world that we’re not going to improve that shot anymore, that we’re going to stop there. You can’t say that because if you don’t get better, if you stop wanting to improve, then it means you’re going backward. So it doesn’t work; you can’t do that.” So the curse is indeed real.

And so, what now? For Gauff and for others who have made the bold decision of fixing that shot, that is refusing to cooperate with the rest of their game. When it’s not working or when relapses keep coming, what do you do?

Is there an exit option?

Well, first, you hope you’ve followed Sven Groenveld's advice when you started to change the shot. “Once you start, you better make sure you have a great plan and have videotaped the changes that you have made.” Why? Dehaes touched on this. “What happens sometimes is that the player doesn’t remember what they were doing before.” Why would they need to? Well, because sometimes, if it doesn’t work well enough, you need to go backward. And the Belgian coach thinks Gauff and her team might want to consider it.

Sure, when these changes worked, they worked very well. But what if Gauff’s game just can’t assimilate them enough for it not to come back to haunt her ambitions? “In my opinion, I’d backtrack,” says Dehaes. “I’d tell her I got it wrong, it’s not working, let’s go back to what you did before because you were doing it well. Maybe not well enough, but you still rose to World No.3 like that and won a Grand Slam title. That’s the reality. So you backtrack.” Dehaes still remains confident in Gauff’s ability to sort this out: “Coco will find a way through this. In time, she will. The only thing that she has to be careful about is that she needs to avoid the issue from becoming a chronic one.”

Tennis history has indeed seen many great players hampered (in more or less mattering ways) by their serve throughout their careers like Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic, Sara Errani, Maria Sharapova after her shoulder surgery, even Venus Williams had some rough patches here and there with that shot, or Guillermo Coria whose game entirely collapsed in that serve issue’s path. Someone like Andy Murray always had an amazing first serve but had to battle to get his second serve on par. Rafael Nadal did tremendous work revamping his serve, just as Djokovic did. Someone like Alexander Zverev remains a work in progress in that department, and even Iga Swiatek, despite all her achievements at such a young age, is struggling this year as she tries to make that shot and her game evolve. Not every player has the easy-looking and efficient serve motions of a Serena Williams or a Roger Federer.

From Monfils, 38, to Mensik, 19: That serve never stops demanding attention

I’ve always been quite fascinated with how professional players keep honing their skills and art, whatever their level or the stage of their career. It takes such a strong mindset. Gaël Monfils, 38, decided this season to change his feet position on his second serve, and he’s being rewarded. Jakub Mensik, 19, who just won his first Masters 1000, had to already go through a revamp of his serve after the way he was hitting it hurt his elbow. “After that, I changed the biomechanics a bit,” he said. The Czech contacted a specialist, Mark Kovacs to find a solution. “[For] Jakub, it’s relatively small changes, so we discussed everything with Mark, and Jakub is very good with this coordination stuff to improve relatively fast. We had to change the serve motion altogether,” said his coach, Tomas Josefus.

Coco Gauff isn’t going through all of this because of an injury; she’s doing it because she’s convinced she belongs at the very top and wants to win these Grand Slam titles, and changing that serve is the only way. She’s been very bold in taking this move, and I guess that’s also why it’s tough to watch her struggle like that with that serve. And why it might also be tough for her to give up on the path taken. So, I’m looking forward to seeing how Gauff, still so young (21), finds the light at the end of the tunnel. The greatest tennis players are so often the greatest at problem-solving.

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SOME BREAK POINTS…

💬 A letter signed by representatives of the WTA and ATP Top 20 was sent to the four Grand Slam events. Why? They are putting pressure on these tournaments to give them a bigger share of the pie. Nothing new, but let’s see if this time it gets somewhere. The last time it succeeded was when the Big 4 summoned everybody and threatened to join what was rumored to be a players’ strike to come. You see the kind of leverage needed here.

❌ Iga Swiatek won’t play with Poland, and in Poland, at the BJK Cup qualifiers next week. "I always represent my country with pride. I played everything there was to play for the country last year," Swiatek said in a statement. "Now it's time for more balance, focusing on myself and my training." I’m not surprised at all by this because, clearly, Swiatek right now needs time to reset and work on her game before the clay season.

❌ Jasmine Paolini has split with her coach Renzo Furlan after ten years of a successful collaboration. “After 10 amazing years together, I want to say a huge thank you to Renzo Furlan for everything he’s done for me. We’ve been on an incredible journey and shared unforgettable moments, including an amazing 2024 with the finals at Wimbledon and Roland Garros and winning Olympic gold in Paris. And even in 2025, we’ve started strong. Renzo has been such an important part of my growth, both as a player and as a person,” she said.

❌ Coco Gauff launched Coco Gauff Enterprises “to take greater ownership of my career while also creating opportunities that extend beyond myself as I continue to grow as an athlete, entrepreneur, and changemaker.” What part of the news made me raise an eyebrow? WME will be representing this Gauff’s management company and no longer the Roger Federer and Tony Godsick agency Team8.

✅ Jack Draper is the new player with a luxury fashion deal. It’s been announced that he is now a Burberry brand ambassador.

🙌 I’m currently watching The Residence on Netflix, and the random tennis mentions were unexpected! The show is created by Shonda Rhymes (I didn’t know she was a tennis fan!), and the lead is played by Uzo Aduba, whom I crossed one year at the US Open. So far, there’s been a murder victim named Kyrgios, a “Roger Federer” answer to the question “Is there anything that’s just Swiss in Switzerland?” and a “I’ve never seen Roger Federer smoke.”

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A FEW READING PICKS

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