MELBOURNE -- When Coco Gauff burst on to the scene at Wimbledon as a 15-year-old, three qualities immediately stood out: speed, serve and composure. These traits have continued to define her in her four-year career and led to her first Grand Slam victory at the US Open last fall.

Now she's working on turning her serve into a more consistent weapon. She has Andy Roddick in her corner ready to help. Gauff has always had a live arm -- the US Open recorded a 128 mph rocket off her racquet in 2022 -- but that speed can come and go. 

"There is nothing physically that stops me from bombing a serve," Gauff said. "I feel like now I did a lot better of going bigger and just trusting my serve. In the past, I would just feel like I needed to get the serve in because I could rely on getting balls back and everything."

During the offseason, Gauff, who is featured in Netflix's "Break Point," spent a few days with Roddick in Charlotte, North Carolina, as he helped her make minor adjustments to improve its reliability. Their first point of focus was the consistency of her toss. She now uses a more abbreviated motion, starting the ball higher to make the toss more consistent.

"I think I just need to continue to trust it and trust all the work that I did in the offseason," Gauff said. "He's probably one of the best servers in history, and especially on the American side. I don't think I could have gotten anybody else better to kind of help me with that."

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With a minor technical adjustment and a shift in her mentality to be more aggressive on her first serve, Gauff has cleared a 6-0 record so far in 2024, including the defense of her title in Auckland two weeks ago.

"I think mentally when I have the aggressive serving mindset, that's when I play my best tennis," Gauff said. "It's not so much why my serve doesn't come off hard. It's more so why am I not going for it more.

"I think I'm trying to go for it more. Hopefully, I can continue to have that aggressive mindset. I think I play my best tennis when I do."

On Monday, Gauff kicked off her Australian Open campaign with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the first round. Playing her first Slam as a major champion, Gauff overcame a slow start on her serve to win the last eight games of the match to seal a tidy one-hour win.

"I think I did well returning and then I found my serve towards the end," Gauff said on court. "She's a tough player to play but I'm happy with how I was able to manage my emotions today."

Gauff opened the match with a 2-0 lead before Schmiedlova was able to break back and keep the early stages of the match tight. With Gauff struggling to find her rhythm on serve, Schmiedlova was able to break three times in the opening set. But Gauff's ability to break the 29-year-old's serve at will laid the foundation for her win. Gauff generated nine break points and converted seven of them to keep Schmiedlova at bay.

Gauff finished the match with 15 winners to 13 unforced errors. She held Schmiedlova to just two winners in the match. 

"When I was nervous at 3-all I told myself I feel good, I look good, so just have fun," Gauff said. "That was able to relax me a little bit. That's why I play tennis, it's to have fun."

Gauff will face her compatriot Caroline Dolehide in the second round. Dolehide advanced to the second round with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Leoelia Jeanjean of France.