OAN Staff James Meyers
9:37 AM – Tuesday, July 30, 2024
American tennis star Coco Gauff was brought to tears during her 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 loss to Croatian player Donna Vekić in the third round of the tournament on Tuesday after an intense argument with the chair umpire of the match.
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Gauff smashed a serve during the second set before Vekić returned it with a shot that landed near the baseline.
Before the 20-year-old American could return, a linesperson initially called it out.
However, in a stunning result, chair umpire Jaume Campistol called the shot in, and awarded Vekic the point, which extended her lead to 4-2 in the set.
“I never argue these calls. But he called it out before I hit the ball,” Gauff told Campistol. “It’s not even a perception; it’s the rules. I always have to advocate for myself.”
The argument that happened in two games from the end of the match caused Gauff to break out into tears.
Gauff initially held a 4-1 lead over Vekić in the first set. But the Croatian, who was a semifinalist at Wimbledon earlier this year, came back and defeated her in a tiebreaker.
Last month, Gauff had a similar situation happen to her when she disputed a call during her French Open loss to Iga Swiatek.
“There’s been multiple times this year where that’s happened to me — where I felt like I always have to be an advocate for myself on the court,” Gauff said afterward, asking for video review to be used in tennis, as it is in many other professional sports.
“I felt that he called it before I hit, and I don’t think the ref disagreed,” she said. “I think he just thought it didn’t affect my swing, which I felt like it did.”
Gauff entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the women’s singles and made it look easy in her first two matches, only dropping a total of five games.
However, the American’s time in the Olympics is not done. She will compete in the women’s doubles competition with Jessica Pegula and mixed doubles with Taylor Fritz.
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