Coco Gauff has revealed she is “really excited” after confirming that Matt Daly has become her new coach.
Gauff recently split with Brad Gilbert after a 14-month partnership during which she won the US Open in 2023, but suffered a notable dip in form across this summer.
The US star has now revealed that she is working with Daly, who has joined forces with J.C Farrell to help coach the 20-year-old across the rest of the season and into 2025.
Former collegiate star Daly, 45, most recently coached ATP Tour star Denis Shapovalov.
“I’m really excited,” said Gauff, speaking to WTA Insider.
“I think this is probably what it will look like next year too. I’m super excited for a new change and hopefully to improve other parts of my game.
“Working with Brad was really great and obviously we had a great partnership. I think it was just time to do a reset, a refresh, and add some things in my game that I felt like I need to do to have a better season next year.”
A key fixation in the American’s game recently has been her serve, particularly her second serve.
Gauff hit 19 doubles faults during her US Open fourth round defeat to compatriot Emma Navarro back earlier in September, a result that saw the then-world No 2 fall out of the top five of the WTA Rankings.
She is in action for the first time since then at the China Open in Beijing, seeded fourth in the single draw, and has revealed improving her serve has been a significant priority.
She added: “There are other parts of my game that I want to work on, too, but the focus right now is the serve. When I serve well, I play pretty well. For me, that’s the basis for my game.
Already, the little bit we’ve done has made a drastic improvement to where I was three weeks ago,” she said.
At this point, there’s not a crazy amount, like going through a whole technique change or resetting everything. It’s just subtle things that, doing it for a week now, will help me.”
Gauff begins her China Open campaign on Friday against French star Clara Burel, having received an opening round bye at the WTA 100 event.
She reached the last four at the event a year ago, losing to eventual champion Iga Swiatek in the semi-finals.
