Coco Gauff was on a winning streak of nine matches until she ran into familiar problems with her service action against Aryna Sabalenka at the Wuhan Open.

The American – who served 21 double faults, which is a record for the 2024 WTA Tour season – is not the first player and she won’t be the last to struggle on serve, and she finds herself in “good” with several big names on the list.

1. Aryna Sabalenka

Sabalenka knows exactly what Coco Gauff is going through. In 2022, the Belarusian was in service hell, coughing up six double faults in a single game at the Australian Open. Over the course of the whole year, she compiled a whopping 440, a mere 151 more than any other player.

At the Adelaide International, Sabalenka even resorted to the old Nick Kyrgios underarm trick just to get the ball in play. Eventually, a biomechanical correction and the sheer will to get this “f*****g” serve fixed was enough.

2. Anna Kournikova

The original Russian talent appeared on the scene well before Maria Sharapova. Kournikova may be remembered for her social activities off the court and her flirtation with catwalks and celebrity status, but the former world No 8 was beating high-calibre opponents.

She reached the Wimbledon semis as a 16-year-old in 1997, only losing to Martina Hingis. However, she was then hit by the dreaded service wobbles. In a second-round encounter against Miho Saeki at the 1999 Australian Open, she racked up 31 doubles but still managed to win despite serving for the match seven times.

“I’m just going to have to try to get over it. If I get upset, it’s going to be even worse,” Kournikova said. Good advice to self. The Independent wrote: “It was one of the most feeble and unintentionally comical matches of all time.”

Tennis Features

Why Coco Gauff’s latest defeat will leave a lasting scar that will be hard to remove

Epic Novak Djokovic triumphs and Roger Federer vs Rafael Nadal classic: 7 legendary ATP Tour finals

3. Ana Ivanovic

Former world No 1 Ivanovic was a great server in her climb to the top of the tree. A New York Times headline read: “When Ana Ivanovic Serves, You Better Duck”, as she thundered down 125mph aces at will.

However, after winning the 2008 French Open, the Serbian began to struggle with the toss and tried various techniques to stop the rot. Ivanovic joked: “I’m so confused right now it doesn’t matter. In the past two months, I changed it five or six times, trying to figure out what feels most natural.”

The ball tosses lurched to the left, to the right and just plain out of reach. What goes up must come down as her ranking nosedived.

4. Alexander Zverev

Zverev is one of the most effective servers on the ATP Tour but that wasn’t always the case. He served 20 double faults in the 2019 Cincinnati Masters first-round loss to Miomir Kecmanović.

However, that paled into insignificance when he followed up with another wreck of a performance against Diego Schwartzman at the US Open when one of his deliveries hit the ground before the net. At least there was no underarm attempt. When Arthur Fils tried that tactic in his victory at the Hamburg Open this year, the German didn’t take it very well…

5. Dinara Safina

The Russian reached three major Grand Slam finals and was world No 1 when she arrived at Roland Garros in 2010 to play 39-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm.

The BBC wrote: “Self-preservation was the primary instinct, as a number of her (Safina’s) 17 double-faults flew so far long they threatened the safety of the media seats.”

A couple of years later, she was double bagelled by Kim Clijsters, winning only eight per cent of her second serves. Safina openly admitted she couldn’t work out how to win any points. Her brother Marat wasn’t too shabby on serve…

6. Novak Djokovic

In 2011, Novak Djokovic had one of the greatest, if not the greatest, season in tennis history ending with a singles record of 70-6 and three Grand Slam titles. The years before this breakthrough were very different indeed. The Serb served a total of 282 double faults in 2010 after engaging serve-volley addict Todd Martin as coach.

Once they parted ways, Djokovic corrected that mechanical failure and never looked back. The serve recently deserted him again at the 2024 US Open when he clocked up 32 doubles over three matches.

He joked to Nick Kyrgios at courtside: “Playing without a serve, you have to grind and run. Not everyone serves like you (Kyrgios). I guess I have to rely on my baseline game.”