Coco Gauff stepped off the court in Montreal knowing she’d won, but the victory felt bittersweet. Despite beating two tough opponents to advance at the 2025 National Bank Open, her serving problems had turned what should have been straightforward wins into exhausting three-set battles. The 21-year-old wasn’t shy about her frustration.
How Are Coco Gauff’s Double Faults Overshadowing Her Montreal Success?
Gauff, the top seed in Montreal, skipped the Washington Open specifically to fine-tune her serve. The strategy, however, hasn’t delivered the expected results. In her second-round victory against fellow American Danielle Collins, she struggled through a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(2) win while committing a staggering 23 double faults.
Coco Gauff winning a match in which she hit 23 double faults on a clean ace is the most Coco Gauff thing ever pic.twitter.com/zXZQS2HAbo
— Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) July 30, 2025
That performance marked the fifth-highest number of double faults in a WTA match. Gauff had previously reached 21 double faults twice: once in a loss to Aryna Sabalenka at the 2024 Wuhan Open, and again in a win over Moyuka Uchijima at Indian Wells the same year.
The serving struggles continued two days later against Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova. Despite recording 14 double faults, Gauff managed to battle through a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory to reach the fourth round.
Speaking to the media after her win over Kudermetova, Gauff was asked how she managed to stay mentally strong while serving more double faults but still emerging victorious.
“Yeah, I mean, there’s positives and there’s negatives,” Gauff said during the post-match press conference. “Obviously, I am so disappointed in myself when it comes to that part of the game, just because I didn’t play D.C. to work on that and made changes to that, and doing well in practice and serving really well in practice. Yeah, so I just would like for it to transfer to the match.”
However, Gauff chose to focus on her resilience in finding ways to win despite her struggles. “It does give positives that, okay, I’m winning these matches having literally like one part of my game on a crutch. So it’s like if I can stand on both feet, then I can only imagine that it would be a lot more straightforward and a lot more easier for me,” she added.
With these victories, Gauff advanced to the fourth round in Montreal for the fifth consecutive year. She will face local wildcard Victoria Mboko in a rematch of their 2025 Italian Open second-round clash, which the American won in three sets. The winner of this match will meet either Zhu Lin or Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Gauff is also making progress in the doubles event alongside her teammate, McCartney Kessler. The American duo defeated Fanny Stollár and Wu Fang-Hsien 7-6(6), 6-4 to reach the second round, where they will face seventh seeded Ellen Perez and Lyudmyla Kichenok.
