America’s Coco Gauff is hoping to get herself back on track with the help of a new mentor at her side.
Spanish newspaper Marca has confirmed that the world No.7 will begin working with Pere Riba from this week’s Rothesay International which is taking place in Eastbourne. Riba is a former player himself who peaked at a ranking high of No.65 in 2011.
Riba had been working with China’s Qinwen Zheng for two years before their collaboration came to an end. During their time together, Zheng rose from 170th in the world to inside the world’s top 20. In a recent interview with Punto de Break, Riba confirmed that the ending of their partnership was because they failed to reach certain objectives that were set out at the start of the year by the father of the tennis player.
In April Gauff confirmed her split from Argentine coach Diego Moyano who could no longer continue his work due to personal reasons. Since then she has been working alongside her father Corey temporarily.
The hope now is that Riba will be able to guide the 19-year-old back to her best form. At the French Open Gauff reached the quarter-finals of the singles tournament, as well as the semi-finals of the doubles. However, on the grass at the Berlin Open, she could only win four games during her second round match against Ekaterina Alexandrova.
So far in her career, Gauff has won three WTA titles with the most recent of those occurring at the ASB Classic in January. She also reached the final of last year’s French Open and during that same season also qualified for the WTA Finals in both singles and doubles.
Guaff is seeded fifth in Eastbourne and will begin her campaign against Bernarda Pera in the first round.
