Coco Gauff explains how Carlos Alcaraz inspired her to ignore coach’s advice in latest Australian Open win
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Coco Gauff has moved comfortably into the third round of the Australian Open, following a straightforward win over Olga Danilovic.
After defeating Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2, 6-3 in her opening match, Gauff followed up with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Danilovic to continue her strong start to the tournament.
As the third seed in Melbourne, Gauff will next face fellow American Hailey Baptiste in round three.
The world number four took just one hour and 18 minutes to get past Danilovic and should be feeling sharp after also having a relatively quick first-round match that lasted just under an hour and forty minutes.
Coco Gauff Disregards Coach’s Advice in Australian Open Victory
Interestingly, the two-time Grand Slam winner revealed that she went against her coaching team’s plan during the match against Danilovic.
Speaking on court after the win, Gauff explained: “We’ll do two minutes at the end of practice with them, and then honestly, the drop shot, it’s always a bad idea in my head.
“And then I make it and I’m like, ‘Okay, that was good’. I saw Carlos [Alcaraz] yesterday, and I was like, I’m trying to drop shot like him.”
“In my first match, I won like seven drop shot points which I don’t think I’ve ever done. And then today, I won like all of them that I did so it’s a good shot until I miss it.
“My coach told me, ‘Don’t go drop shot on pressure points’, and I think almost every time I did a drop shot today was on a pressure point and it worked.”
Coco Gauff’s serving holds up well in Australian Open second round
Gauff was pleased with her drop shots against Danilovic, but there was also plenty to like about how she served.
Her double fault issues are no secret, having led the WTA Tour in that stat across both 2024 and 2025. But against Danilovic, she won 84% of her first serve points, a notable step forward.
That translated to winning 26 out of 31 first serve points, well above the tour average by a full 16 percentage points.
There’s still work to be done on consistency, but Gauff has also trimmed her double faults from seven in the opener down to four in her latest match. That steady improvement should give her something to build on moving forward.
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