Coco Gauff finally snapped her trophyless streak since Roland Garros with a big win at a WTA 1000 event. Taking down fellow American Jessica Pegula in the Wuhan Open final, the 21-year-old walked away with her spot solidified in both the rankings and the race to the WTA Finals. Fresh off a semifinal run in Beijing, this win adds another layer to her record as she hits a new milestone. Still, one stat continues to cast a shadow over her triumph.

By beating Pegula 6-4, 7-5 to capture her third WTA 1000 title, Gauff achieved a remarkable milestone as the first woman in the Open Era to start her career 9-0 in hard-court finals. Her unbeaten streak on the surface echoes the dominance that tennis last witnessed from Serena Williams back in 2015.

But even as she celebrates, another stat stands out. Coco Gauff has made an unusual mark in tennis history, becoming the first player in the Open Era to record over 400 double faults in back-to-back seasons. After the Wuhan Open, she leads the 2025 WTA list with 405 — far ahead of Ekaterina Alexandrova (280) and Linda Noskova (275). Marta Kostyuk, Alycia Parks, Amanda Anisimova, Jelena Ostapenko, and Dayana Yastremska round out the top eight.

That number still looms large after her latest win. Her double faults have been the storyline since the French Open. She racked up 23 in her Montreal opener against Danielle Collins back in July. Since then, early exits followed as she tried to iron out her serve. To fix it, she turned to biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan, the same coach who helped World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka transform her serve. The partnership seems to be paying off, and the title run in Wuhan proves it. Let’s take a look at her journey.

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Coco Gauff’s struggle with her serve this season

Even in her Paris triumph, the flaw was clear. She fired eight double faults in the final against Aryna Sabalenka and ten in her quarterfinal against Madison Keys, three of them in the opening tiebreak. Reuters reported that even before Roland Garros, she’d already piled up 193 double faults in 32 matches, the highest total on the WTA Tour at that point.

The struggle didn’t vanish after Paris. At the National Bank Open in Montreal, Coco Gauff somehow won despite racking up a staggering 23 double faults against Danielle Collins. Her serving pattern stayed unpredictable across the season, averaging six to seven double faults per match, well above her top-tier peers. Tennis Stats data showed she had reached 405 double faults in 2025, averaging roughly 6.65 per match over 46 matches. The numbers were tough, but they told a story: Coco’s fearless aggression sometimes walked a fine line.

Determined to reset, Gauff teamed up with biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan after parting ways with coach Matt Daly before the US Open. Daly had guided her through a successful stretch since September 2024, including her China Open title, but after early setbacks on grass, she made the switch.

Has MacMillan helped reduce Coco Gauff’s on-court errors?

Right before the last slam of the season, Gauff brought in  Gavin MacMillan to fix her serve. She wanted, as she told Reuters, “technical change” and refused to “waste time doing the wrong things.” It wasn’t just a tweak; it was all about rebuilding her mechanics and cleaning up the errors.

Early results showed the climb would be gradual. At the US Open, she fired 10 double faults in her opener against Ajla Tomljanovic, then eight in the next match with Donna Vekic, seven of those jammed into the first set. The bright spot? Just one in the second set, proving she could adjust mid-match when the rhythm clicked.

At the China Open, no stats went public, but her serve drew praise for looking “more controlled.” Between Beijing and Wuhan, her first serve steadied and error streaks shrank. MacMillan wasn’t there, but Gauff was clear: “I’m still working with Gavin, but he’s not here because we started last minute, so he had other plans for this part of the year. We’ll be working with each other right when I get home from here.”

Even without him courtside, she kept learning. “It was a good learning experience. For me, it was a tough challenge, I think mentally more so than anything, just, like, kind of losing trust in a lot of things, trying to find that in that tournament,” she said. At Wuhan, she still had serving lapses: seven double faults in the semi against Jasmine Paolini, with five in one game. Winning only 27% of second-serve points made it clear the issue lingered, but her returns and grit carried her to a 6-4, 6-3 win. Across the week, her double faults stayed between five and seven per match, a stat worth noting, but still a run worth applauding.

Gauff’s new milestone for American tennis

After the Wuhan Open final, Gauff lit up Instagram with that post-victory glow. The 21-year-old shared a carousel full of pride and pure joy. One standout story was a repost from Tennis Channel captioned, “Coco joins some elite company 🏆,” alongside a collage of her and Serena Williams. That image said it all, Gauff had become the first player since Serena to win nine straight hard-court finals, chasing a mark set by Serena’s twelve-match streak from the 2013 US Open to the 2015 Cincinnati Masters.

Another story showed a fan post reading, “In elite company us 🤝🏾,” with Coco Gauff pictured next to Venus Williams. That moment struck deep, it officially placed her alongside Venus as the only Americans to win the Wuhan Open. “That’s just how tennis works,” she told a fellow player in the locker room. “It always happens when you don’t expect it.” For Coco, “it” is that perfect spark when the whole game clicks at the biggest stage.

Taking down a fellow American wasn’t easy either. Jessica Pegula arrived in the final after a big semifinal victory over the World No.1 but couldn’t maintain the edge, missing a chance at her 10th career title. It was their seventh career meeting and first final, with Pegula still leading 4–3 overall and their doubles success adding texture to the matchup. “When I came on tour, you were one of the first people to be nice to me and welcome me with open arms. That really went a long way, so I appreciate you,” Gauff told Pegula on court, words as heartfelt as her tennis was fearless.

It was the kind of performance that silences doubts and fuels destiny. Heading into her next tournament, one thing is certain: Coco Gauff is flying, and she’s nowhere near done.