Coco Gauff’s Umpire Argument ‘Fueled’ Her Win
Coco Gauff does not mess around about tennis. On Wednesday, the U.S. Open champion was competing against Karolína Plíšková at the Dubai Tennis Championships when the umpire made a bad call. Gauff served, Plíšková returned into the net, and only then did Pierre Bacchi call an out.
Gauff successfully challenged the call, but instead of awarding her the point, Bacchi asked her to redo the play. This led to a tense argument between the two, in which Gauff repeatedly asked to speak to the tournament supervisor and was consistently denied by Bacchi. After their nearly five-minute back-and-forth, Gauff replayed the point; she went on to win both the game and the set. The 19-year-old later said that the argument “fueled” her.
Coco Gauff is not happy with the umpire in her match against Pliskova.
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) February 21, 2024
“You called it out after she hit it.”
“Can you not cut me off for two seconds?”
“Call the supervisor… you can’t deny me the supervisor. I’m gonna ask her what the rule is.”
Coco hit a serve that was… pic.twitter.com/QyfBN1q6D6
“It definitely gave me some adrenaline,” Gauff told Reuters afterward. “Luckily I was able to overcome that pretty quickly. I’m glad I was able to reset.”
This is not the first time Gauff has had to stand up for herself on the court. At last year’s U.S. Open, she voiced her frustration with the umpire for not penalizing her opponent for intentionally slowing down the game. Gauff ended up winning that match, too.
“Maybe I dragged it out a little longer than I needed to, but I did what I felt was best in that moment,” Gauff said of yesterday’s argument. Not only did the footage back her up — Bacchi clearly made the call after Plíšková returned the serve — but so did tennis legend Andy Roddick.
“This is an absurd exchange for this umpire,” Roddick wrote on X. “He simply needed to honor that normal request and call the supervisor. Coco did well here.” I have to agree! Now we just need to get these umps to start listening to her.
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