Former doubles world No 1 Rennae Stubbs has admitted it was “awkward” to criticise Coco Gauff in front of the American’s coach Brad Gilbert at the US Open.

Gauff‘s US Open title defence ended with a three-set defeat to Emma Navarro in the fourth round of the New York Grand Slam.

The 20-year-old star was plagued by serving issues in the match as she made only 46% of her first serves and hit 19 double faults.

Stubbs assessed Gauff’s performance in her role as an analyst for ESPN in front of Gilbert — who also works for the American broadcaster.

The Australian, who is a former coach of tennis legend Serena Williams, broke down the technical issues she identified with Gauff’s serve.

“Where is Coco’s confidence? The thing with Emma [Navarro] is that she is always looking to attack and most women are looking to attack because they often see a slow second serve in women’s tennis. Not like in the men’s,” Stubbs said.

“But the difference with Coco is that sometimes she was hitting at like in a mid-90s second serve, then she was going a little bit slower in the middle. There’s no second serve, that’s the sign. And that’s a problem.

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“So under pressure, bad technique breaks down and her technique is… hard for me to say because Brad [Gilbert] is sitting here… but her technique, the elbow, is too low, the grip is a little weird as well.

“So it’s hard for her to get that nice first serve and then the same or similar second serve.”

Speaking on the Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, Stubbs addressed the incident and explained there are no issues between her and Gilbert.

“It’s great, we can hear from the coach of the player, yeah, it’s sort of great, but also a little bit awkward for people that are working there,” she said.

“But look, the bottom line is, it’s like, in that situation, my job is to also tell people at home why she’s losing and why she lost that match.

“That’s my job and you know, Brad’s a professional. He understands, he’s not going to be — he doesn’t hold it against me.

“This is… it’s part of the job and if you know, if [Jannik Sinner] loses, I’m sure if Brad was on the desk with [Sinner’s coach] Darren [Cahill] and he did 19 double faults, he’d probably say ‘Bro you gotta get your player to not hit double 19 double faults’, and this is what I see that could improve.”

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