Coco Gauff’s gold medal campaign came to a close Tuesday in an emotion-filled match in which the No. 2 seed fell to Croatia’s Donna Vekic, 7-6, 6-2.
Gauff played confident and in control at the start, hitting an early lead in the first set. Vekic slammed a forehand into the net and gave Gauff a two-break lead.
Before long, Vekic turned up her tennis and pushed Gauff to a tiebreak for Set 1. Vekic’s forehand was on fire and she used it to land an impressive 11 winners, taking the tiebreak and the set.
But it was the second set that dismantled Gauff’s game entirely.
At 3-2, 30-40, Gauff was on service when Vekic returned a forehand shot that a line judge called “out” as Gauff was striking the ball. The call seemed to cause Gauff to hit into the net. After Gauff made contact, the chair umpire called for a correction to the out call, thus making Vekic’s shot in and Gauff’s return shot a fault. The result would put Vekic up a break.
Gauff immediately approached the chair umpire to dispute the point.
“You called the ball out before I even hit the ball,” Gauff emphatically told the ref.
“That doesn’t matter,” the chair umpire responded.
As Gauff and the umpire began to debate the point and call, the ITF tournament referee Clare Wood, came on court, and Gauff had choice words for her.
“It always happens to me on this court,” Gauff relayed to the tournament referee. “I feel like I’ve been cheated on constantly,” Gauff noted, as tears streamed down the 20-year-old’s face.
“I hope one day the game becomes fair because it’s not,” Gauff added before returning to the court.
As Vekic began her next service game, she was met with audible jeers.
“I did nothing wrong,” Vekic could be seen saying on the court, in response to the crowd.
Gauff couldn’t find her footing after the controversial call. The American lost the second set and swiftly left the court, as her gold medal dreams were dashed.
Gauff was candid with the media after her loss, citing that video review would have been an aid in resolving the line call discord.
"There's 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," Gauff told the media after the match. "I feel like in tennis, we should have a VR (video review) system because these points are big deals. And, yeah, usually afterwards, they apologize, so it's kind of frustrating when the sorry doesn't help you once the match is over."
"I can't say I would have won the match if I would have won that point but, for sure, being not a break, whereas maybe replaying that point can make a big difference in that game. But I'm not going sit here and say one point affected the result today, because I was already on the losing side of things before that point happened."
While her singles medal wasn't in the cards for her in 2024, Gauff has turned her attention to her mixed doubles match with partner Taylor Fritz later today.
"It's exciting," Gauff said of her upcoming match. "I'm trying to do my best to mentally just be ready for that match. It was a tough match today, but I want to come home with something.
"(A medal) is the main goal. I'm just trying to go to the locker room, reset, and get ready for mixed (doubles)."
The third-seeded pair will face Argentina's Nadia Podoroska and Maximo Gonzalez.