Former ATP top 5 player and French Open finalist Harold Solomon analyzed yesterdays US Open duel between Emma Navarro vs. Coco Gauff…
After watching the women’s match with Coco and Emma I came away with a few deductions. Both players are really good obviously. Emma has a really good handle on who she is on the court and uses her athleticism to defend and be aggressive at the appropriate time for the most part. Of course she can lose it sometimes as she did at the Olympics and yesterday up a set and a break and 30-0 but she has a great demeanor on the court and competes really well.
Her serve will get better and she will continue to get stronger, not sure if she is ready now to win a slam but I think it will happen in the future. I just wish she would get more props from the commentators, she is a great example for the young players coming up and her personality while more low key is so on point.
We know Coco is a great player just look what she has done at such a young age. She is an amazing young lady, thoughtful, committed, hard working and delightful to be around. It’s hard to argue with her results although I’m not sure she is doing the work on her game to get her to the next superstar level. She seems to be to one dimensional. She is an amazing athlete very capable and should be capable of playing many different types of tennis. Her deficiencies seem to be the lack of a dependable slice backhand to change the pace and allow her to come in more, she volleys really well. I am also not sure why she can’t play more heavy forehands with more margin and at times get the ball up higher on her opponents backhands which could get her more short balls to attack with.
I think she can do a better job of attacking second serves and learning to come in behind the good returns, it was evident how much pressure Emma put on Coco’s second serve which was a factor in all of those double faults. I’m not really sure if Coco knows who she is on the court, is she just trying to bang every ball? I’m not so sure that should be her style, would love to see more variety. I don’t think she has a bad serve but I think she doesn’t utilize what she has very well. I think she serves like she is a fast ball pitcher with nothing else. In reality she can hit really good kicks, and slices and she needs to serve like a pitcher who has a lot of different deliveries.
Yesterday she should have used her 3/4 kick as a first serve especially when she lost confidence in the third set, it would have taken away Emma’s ability to apply pressure on her second serve and taken pressure off of her serve. I think she gets locked into winning free points and loses the overall perspective on what she is trying to accomplish. Change up the spins, the directions, keep her opponents guessing. If Brad Gilbert didn’t tell her 20 times to just kick in serves and I don’t think he did, then he is partly responsible for the loss yesterday. Many people have stated that she should try and change the grip on the forehand I’m not so sure, if Iga can be successful with that grip maybe she can too, but she isn’t close to the acceleration Iga gets. Love to see her at the net more. She has great hands and is comfortable up there. Lots more Slams in her future she is a great competitor, but I hope Brad or someone else continues to build her game, add a little Ash Barty to the final product. Pulling for both of these women, good times for American tennis!
Coco Gauff · Emma Navarro · Harold Solomon · US Open
