Rising American star Coco Gauff was brought to tears as she fell to a straight sets loss to Donna Vekic of Croatia in the third round of the women’s singles tennis event at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The reigning US Open champion was among the favourites to win gold in the women’s singles, duly seeded second in the draw and was looking good to advance after racing to a 4-1 lead and a point from going 5-1 up in the first set.
But Gauff failed to maintain her electric start to the match as Vekic, semi-finalist at Wimbledon in June, found her foot and battled her way back into the match and capitalise on Gauff’s faltering game to take the tie-break and win the first set 7-6.
Controversy happened in the second set when a Line Judge initially called Vekic’s return shot out leading to Gauff not making an effort to return, only for match umpire Jaume Campistol to overturn the call and hand Vekic the point.
“I never argue these calls. But he called it out before I hit the ball,” Gauff said to Campistol amid tears as the match was delayed for some minutes. “It’s not even a perception; it’s the rules. I always have to advocate for myself.”
Campistol maintained the call in Vekic’s favour, Gauff won the next point as the match resumed but fizzled out as the match ended 7-6, 6-2, bringing an end to her first singles campaign at the Olympics.