Coco Gauff’s Paris Olympics journey ended on Tuesday after a loss to Croatia’s Donna Vekic. It was an emotional match owing to a shoddy call made by the umpire. For the third time this year, Gauff had to advocate for herself to the umpire, and this time she was left in tears.
During the second set, Vekic returned Gauff’s serve and the ball landed near the baseline. A line judge ruled the ball out, leading Gauff to return the ball into the net. The ball was actually in bounds, leading chair umpire Jaume Campistol to award a point to Vekic. His argument was that the “out” call from the line judge should not have affected Gauff’s return.
Coco Gauff arguing her case with the ref at the #Olympics #Olympic2024 #Tennis pic.twitter.com/nWJ3UFNW3k
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Gauff objected to Campistol’s call, eventually breaking into tears during the emotional argument. “This isn’t fair; he called it out before I hit the ball,” Gauff argued.
It seemed that Campistol understood that he had made a poor call because he told Gauff, “I know I’m wrong, but I cannot change my decision after your appeal.” Eventually, a referee came in to act as a mediator.
“This isn’t fair. I feel like I’m getting cheated on constantly in this game. I constantly feel like that, and I have to argue. And then you guys apologize afterwards, you guys say, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then what does that do for me in the match?” Gauff said. The ref argued that it was “not intentional,” which Gauff scoffed at. “It’s not intentional?’ It happens to me, it happens to Serena … It is.”
Throughout the heated exchange, Gauff made reference to the difficulties she’s had with umpires this year. In February, she was forced to challenge a bad call at the Dubai Tennis Championships — instead of being awarded a point, the ump made her redo the play. In June, at the French Open, Gauff missed a return after her opponent’s serve was ruled out (sound familiar?). The umpire overruled the call, compelling Gauff to argue her side once again.
“There are so many decisions that are made, and it sucks as a player to go back or [watch] online, and you see that you were completely right,” Gauff said of the French Open call. “And it’s like, what does that give you in that moment?”
Back at the Olympics, Gauff argued that the whole sport of tennis had a fairness problem. “You guys are not fair to me,” she said. “I hope that one day the game becomes fair, but it’s not.”
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