The scene felt all too familiar to Coco Gauff. An officiating decision the Atlanta native was sure was wrong. A chair umpire who wouldn’t listen. Tears streaming down her cheeks. And, most disappointing of all, a loss, this time at the Paris Olympics.
Even the site was the same: Court Philippe Chatrier was where the reigning U.S. Open champion was eliminated in the third round at the Summer Games by Donna Vekic of Croatia 7-6 (7), 6-2 on Tuesday. That’s also the main stadium used annually for the French Open, where Gauff found herself in a nearly identical dispute over a call while being defeated by eventual champion Iga Swiatek in the semifinals last month.
“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, renewing a call 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 is one of the biggest stars at the 2024 Paris Games, a 20-year-old from Florida who was seeded No. 2 at the Olympics in singles and was the female flag bearer for the United States during the opening ceremony on Friday.
It was Vekic, though, who was receiving much of the support from the stands early in the match, with chants of “Don-na! Don-na!” ringing out. When Vekic began her comeback after trailing 4-1, she responded to some applause by waving her arms overhead for more — and the crowd responded. In the next game, Gauff delivered a backhand winner and raised a hand, wagging her fingers to ask the folks in the seats to back her — and they responded, drawing a wry smile from Vekic.
By the time the disputed call happened two games from the end of the match, Gauff was way behind.
She hit a serve and Vekic’s return landed near the baseline. A line judge initially called Vekic’s shot out; Gauff did not keep the ball in play. Chair umpire Jaume Campistol thought Vekic’s shot landed in and awarded her the point, giving her a service break and a 4-2 lead.
Gauff walked over to talk to the official and play was delayed for several minutes.
“I never argue these calls. But he called it out before I hit the ball,” Gauff said to Campistol. “It’s not even a perception; it’s the rules.”
She easily won her first two singles matches, dropping a total of just five games. But her first Olympic singles tournament — she is still in women’s doubles and mixed doubles — ended with a performance that was hardly her best on the hottest day of the Summer Games so far, with the heat rising above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius).
“These points are big deals. Usually afterward, they apologize. So it’s kind of frustrating. The ‘Sorry’ doesn’t help you once the match is over,” Gauff said. “I can’t say I would have won the match if I would have won that point.”
Even before the trouble over the umpiring decision, Gauff could not sustain a good start against Vekic, who was a semifinalist at Wimbledon this month.
The American led 4-1 and was a point from moving ahead 5-1 and serving for the opening set. But she didn’t close the deal, then wasted a couple of set points at 6-4 in the ensuing tiebreaker. Vekic surged to the end of that set, then maintained her level in the second.
One measure of Vekic’s superiority on this afternoon: She finished with 33 winners to just nine for Gauff.
“I’m not going to sit here and say one point affected the result today,” Gauff acknowledged, “because I was already on the losing side of things.”
Still, the most memorable moment in the match was that second-set argument. Gauff even alluded to that Swiatek loss while talking to Campistol and a supervisor who joined the conversation on the court Tuesday.
“It always happens here at the French Open to me. Every time,” Gauff said, holding a tennis ball in one hand and her racket in the other while pleading her case. “This is like the fourth, fifth time it’s happened this year.”
Vekic, who advanced to the quarterfinals, did not get involved, staying at her end of the court and fiddling with her strings.
“It’s a very tricky situation. I personally thought the umpire made a good decision, because the call came quite late,” Vekic said when asked afterward about what happened. “But I’ll have to rewatch it. It’s tough to know exactly in the moment.”
When Gauff gave up and headed back on court to resume play, fans booed loudly — anger directed at the official.
The first point of the next game went Gauff’s way, and spectators cheered wildly for her.
But about 10 minutes later, the match was over.
Gauff was scheduled to head back out on court with U.S. teammate Taylor Fritz for a first-round mixed doubles match later Tuesday. She also is competing in women’s doubles with Jessica Pegula at these Olympics.
Over the weekend, Gauff spoke about aiming to leave with three medals — one from each of her events in Paris. That won’t happen now.
“I want” Gauff said Tuesday, “to come home with something.”
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
WABE News contributed to this report.
