Coco Gauff is adding a new weapon to her arsenal. The American star is borrowing a page from men's No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz's playbook, and it worked wonders at the Australian Open

When she beat Olga Danilović (6-2, 6-2), Gauff used the drop shot, something fans haven't seen from the WTA No. 3. And this decision came from watching ATP No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz.

“Honestly, the drop shot is always a bad idea in my head and then I make it, and I’m like, ‘Oh okay, that was good. I saw Carlos 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. Today I won all of them that I did.”

She went against coach Jean Christophe Faurel's advice. “My coach said don’t drop shot on pressure points. I think almost every time I drop shotted today was on a pressure point and it worked, so…”

Not everything went perfectly, though, as Gauff made 4 double faults and missed 1 crucial return. “I missed the backhand at 40-love to go five-zero, but other than that it was perfect.”

Coco Gauff Joins the History Books At the Australian Open

This is the 5th time the 21-year-old has made it to round 3 in the Australian Open. With this win, Gauff has equalled Pam Shriver’s record of 76 wins in her first 100 Grand Slam matches and remains unbeaten in second-round Slam matches since 2022.

Tweaking her game has also made her realize something else, “I think continuing to be aggressive the way I thought I had to be – ultra-aggressive, hitting completely flat – I realised that’s probably not the game style for me”.

Round 3 on Friday will see an all-American showdown between Coco Gauff and Hailey Baptiste. Baptiste already upset fellow American Taylor Townsend in round 1. Who will make it through? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Written by

Fatema Kapasi

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar