Andy Roddick hails Coco Gauff's special 'superpower' ahead of 2026 season

Despite facing some challenges in the past year, which included a split from her coach of just 11 months, Matt Daly, in August, 2025 was another landmark year for Gauff.

The 21-year-old claimed her second Grand Slam singles title at the French Open, defeating World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final. She also added her third WTA 1000 singles crown at the Wuhan Open and notched runner-up finishes at both the Madrid Open and Italian Open, closing the year ranked third in the world.

"With Coco at number three, and I think this is what we are going to start doing when we cover her moving forward as it's only fair, we are not going to start from a negative place," said Roddick.

"We are going to talk about how she is able to settle in. How she is able to apply her game. How she is able to create errors and stress for her opponent, to rely on her legs.

"She has one of the biggest and hardest backhands in the world that people do not talk about enough. She is able to work the forehand to drive traffic. She sets up her defense with patterns. It is not an accident."

Double faults were an issue for Gauff at times across the year, with the 23 she hit against Danielle Collins at the Canadian Open among the highest ever recorded in a WTA match.

However, Gauff was still able to seal victory in that contest and won a string of matches across the year even when she appeared far from her best.

Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion, described this ability as Gauff's "superpower" and said she was the very best at winning when still "uncomfortable" with her game.

"To go through things that are physically and mentally not working and to get through it and win consistently is a superpower," he said.

"There is no world where anyone else on earth can be dealing with 20 or 25 double faults and we are looking up and at scale, not for a tournament, every year she is two in the world, three in the world. She does not leave those positions.

"It does not matter how much we see her struggle. We have to give credit where credit is due for Coco at some point.

"If the losses are ugly, I don't care. She is the best in the world at being uncomfortable on a given day and getting a win."

Gauff's 2026 season will begin at the United Cup, where she will look to help the United States successfully defend its title in the mixed team event.

That will be followed by the opening Grand Slam of the year at the Australian Open, where Gauff was a quarter-finalist in 2025, and a semi-finalist in 2024.

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