Gauff burst into tears after one controversial call that was made against her during a Paris Olympics loss to Donna Vekic.
Coco Gauff has broken silence on a very controversial situation that occurred to her during a Paris Olympics round-of-16 loss as the American didn’t want to blame “one mistake” for her loss but underlined that it’s time to finally introduce a video review technology for such situations in tennis.
In case you missed it, Gauff was down by a set today to Donna Vekic and facing a break point at 2-3 in the second set of their round-of-16 match at the Olympics. After Vekic’s ball was called out – Gauff returned that ball and it landed in the net. After a quick inspection, the umpire determined that Vekic’s ball was in. But he didn’t decide the point to be replayed – instead chair umpire Jaume Campistol directly awarded the point to the Croatian.
Gauff couldn’t believe the call – and after breaking down in tears and getting extremely upset – she demanded the supervisor. When the supervisor arrived on the court, Gauff emotionally asked when umpires would stop “cheating” on her.
“I feel like I’m getting cheated constantly in this game. This is the 3rd time this happens to me this year,” Gauff was heard telling the supervisor.
Gauff: I feel I have to be an advocate for myself on the court…
After a very controversial call and dramatic situation, Gauff didn’t win a game afterward as Vekic completed a 7-6 (7) 6-2 win.
Gauff also felt wronged by umpires during one of her 2023 US Open and 2024 Dubai matches.
“There have been multiple times this year where that happened to me where I feel like I always have to be an advocate for myself on the court. I feel like in tennis, we should have a VAR (Video Assistant Referee) system because these points are big deals. Usually, afterwards they apologize,” Gauff said after the match, via The Athletic.
The 2023 US Open champion didn’t want to say that she lost because of that situation but highlighted that it was an important moment.
“It’s kind of frustrating when the sorry doesn’t help you once the match is over. I can’t say I would have won the match if I would have won that point. But being down a break… Maybe replaying that point can make a big difference in that game, Gauff added.
“But I’m not gonna sit here and say one point affected the result today, because I was already on the losing side of things before that point happened.”
