Coco Gauff gives her assessment of how her serve has looked so far this clay season

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Coco Gauff is through to the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Open and will take on Karolina Muchova later today.

She’s dominated their past meetings, so this is a match she’ll feel confident about, especially with how the draw has opened up on her side.

With a number of big names stacked on the other half of the bracket, this could be a great chance for her to make it back-to-back finals following her recent win in Miami, getting her clay season off to an ideal start.

After easing past Liudmila Samsonova in straight sets, Gauff spoke about how she feels playing on clay right now and gave some thoughts on how her serve is holding up.

Coco Gauff shares thoughts on her clay form this year

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It’s no secret that Gauff’s serve has been a talking point for quite some time, with Gavin MacMillan brought in to help address the issue.

The 22-year-old was still finding ways to win, despite it often feeling like she was playing with one hand tied behind her back. Just getting results during that period is impressive in itself.

Speaking to reporters about returning to clay as the defending Roland Garros champion, she said: “Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t say — obviously the first time defending champion, I feel like I have come into it with being a favourite, one of the favourites before, maybe not ‘the’ favourite.”

“How would I put this tournament? Honestly, I don’t know,” she continued. “For me it’s just trying to find my groove here. I don’t do well here. I’m trying to break that curse. I broke it in Miami so hoping to break it here.”

“I don’t also put a lot of expectations on this tournament because it is a clay that I don’t think suits my game. I think it suits bigger maybe flatter hitters because of the indoors but yeah definitely think happy just to get through today.”