Coco Gauff was one of the favorites to reach the final of the women's singles at the Paris Olympics, but her loss to Donna Vekic in the third round involved a heated exchange with the umpire.
The 20-year-old easily won two opening rounds against Ajla Tomljanovic and Maria Lourdes Carle. She seemed to be playing herself into a nice rhythm for a deep run that would end in a medal.
Sadly for Gauff and her fans, she was stunned by Donna Vekic in the third round. After a tight first set, the Croatian ran away with the match in the second set to seal an impressive 7-6, 6-2 triumph.
That was not the only disappointment Gauff experienced. She also lost her women's doubles second-round match with Jessica Pegula. The Czech pair Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova knocked them out.
Despite those setbacks, the media's focus has not been on Gauff missing out on chances to claim medals. Instead, an incident involving Gauff, a line judge, and the umpire is receiving the majority of the attention..
During the second set, a line judge called a return from Vekic that landed near the baseline out. The umpire corrected this, correctly realizing the ball had landed in.
However, instead of replaying the point, the umpire awarded Vekic the point after Gauff's next shot landed out. The US Open champion was unhappy with the call and became emotional while pleading her case to the umpire.
Gauff referenced two other incidents while talking to the umpire. One was an incident in Dubai, while the other was an identical situation at Roland-Garros in the French Open semifinal against Iga Swiatek when she felt a call come before she hit her shot.
"I feel like I'm getting cheated constantly in this game. This is the 3rd time this happens to me this year."
Gauff's use of the word "cheat" created headlines, but the American was adamant she was correct. The 20-year-old continued by telling the umpire, Jaume Campistol, who did not believe the out call hindered Gauff's swing, that he and other officials were not fair to her.
"He called it out before I hit the ball. It kind of does [matter] when the ball isn’t that fast. This is not fair. You guys are not fair to me. I hope that one day the game becomes fair, but it’s not."
The US Open champion then began to cry during an emotional and tense situation. One unfair moment came when some fans called out during Vekic's serve after the incident, who had done nothing wrong.
After the match, Gauff said she thinks tennis should have a video assistant referee system for such moments, although she also made clear one point did not affect the match's outcome.
"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."
"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. 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."
As can be seen in the video below, the evidence suggests the call came after the shot, which would make the umpire correct for awarding Vekic the point. However, the synchronization of sound and pictures from videos like the one below is not always 100% perfect.
It is a shame that the incident overshadowed Vekic's excellent performance. She showed the quality that took her to the Wimbledon semifinal to defeat Gauff.
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