Coco Gauff will now face Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the fourth round of the French Open.

Coco Gauff and Serena Williams (Via IMAGO)

Coco Gauff remains one of the most improved WTA stars this season. Despite, not having the best serves, she has worked hard at getting her return game perfect. With significant wins, propelled by her great returns, the American revealed recently, that she learned it from tennis icon Serena Williams.

The 20-year-old was heading into the French Open after reaching the semifinals of the Italian Open, losing to eventual champion Iga Swiatek. But, before that, she won the Auckland Open before reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open. However, these victories were made easy due to her return game, which has been her backbone this season.

She has made attack her best form of defense which has made her win 50.2% of return points in the 33 matches she has played this season. Most significantly, against Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, she won 49.2% and 44.2% respectively from their meetings. Yesterday, she defeated Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska in the third round of the French Open 6-2, 6-4 winning 52% of her return game.

Notwithstanding, the US Open Champion admitted she learned her good returns from Serena Williams. The American narrated that she worked on it by putting hard yards on the court.

For me, returns were something I was working on a lot because my return-made percentage honestly used to be really, really bad like a couple years ago. I’d be curious to look at those stats. One thing I learned from Serena, she would spend probably like an hour sometimes literally just hitting returns. I took inspiration from that because that’s the first part of the point. I think the average rally is like four or five balls

Coco Gauff said via tennis365

Also, she added that she has worked on a few tweaks on her return game which makes the opponent keep guessing while she switches her return position.

Coco Gauff confident of winning more as she hopes to play well for the next ten years

World No.3 Coco Gauff is expecting more wins and titles after reaching the fourth round of the French Open. The American is yet to win any title since January and has not won any clay title since 2022.

However, that doesn’t seem to disturb her, as she believes she’s still young to achieve more on the court.

It’s important to expect great things from yourself but I’m 20 and I’m hoping to be playing for another 10 years or so.

Coco Gauff said via BBC

Coco Gauff (Via Imago)
She will face Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the fourth round of the French Open. She is bidding for her second Grand Slam after US Open triumph last year.