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Coco Gauff lost her third-round match to Croatia’s Donna Vekić on Tuesday. Although she took full responsibility for her disappointing early exit, she called out chair umpire Jaume Campistol and asked for the video to be replayed following an intense and tearful on-court argument toward the end of the match.
Gauff was fighting for her life in the second set after Vekić came back from 5-1 down to win the first. She couldn’t find the calm strength she had shown in the previous set, but what happened next made her sink. She served the ball to Vekić, and the return landed on the baseline. The line judge ruled the ball out of play at first, so Gauff didn’t keep the ball in play. But the chair umpire disagreed and overturned the line judge’s decision, giving Vekić the point. And a break of serve, making any return from Gauff even more difficult. Gauff headed to Campistol and the two men argued for five minutes, with Gauff in tears, before the match resumed.
“I felt like he blew the whistle before I hit the ball, and I don’t think the umpire disagreed,” Gauff told the media after the game. “I think he just thought it wouldn’t affect my swing, which I think it did.”
Vekić was already several games ahead when Gauff argued with the chair umpire. By then, Gauff’s game had already collapsed and she admitted she didn’t know if winning the point would have made any difference.
“I’m not going to sit here and say that one point affected the outcome today,” Gauff said, “because I was already on the losing side.”
Whether she won or lost is not the point of her comments or her anger on the field. It is about ensuring that the rules of the sport are properly applied to each player. And this is not the first time she has felt this way.
“It always happens to me here at Roland Garros. Every time,” Gauff told Campistol during the dispute. “This is the fourth or fifth time this has happened to me this year.”
There is evidence that this has happened to her at least once in the last three months. At Roland Garros in May, the same situation occurred when she faced Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. She lost that match as well.
But all is not lost for Gauff at the 2024 Olympics. She will no longer compete in singles, but will play mixed doubles with Taylor Fritz, who is also competing in men’s singles. Gauff also continues her longtime partnership with Jessica Pegula, who lost her singles match in the second round earlier this week. Gauff and Pegula are seeded No. 1 in women’s doubles and recently won their first Grand Slam doubles title at the French Open.
Between her partnerships with Pegula and Fritz, it’s possible that Gauff will leave the game with at least one gold medal. It might not be in singles, but a gold medal is a gold medal, no matter the event.
