Olympics: Second seed Gauff upset by Vekic and chair umpire in third round loss

Coco Gauff‘s dreams of an Olympic medal suffered a setback on Tuesday as the second-seeded American was knocked out of the singles competition by Croatia’s Donna Vekic.

Vekic, who reached her first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon earlier this month, continued her good run of form by advancing into the last eight at Roland-Garros on Tuesday.

Gauff began the match on a strong note, breaking to lead 4-1 and was a point away from going to 5-1 double break lead. However, Vekic held her serve in the sixth game and then also saved a set point while trailing 5-2. From there, the Croatian found her footing and worked her way back to level the set at 5-5.

Both players held serve to take the first set into a tiebreaker, where Gauff held two more set points at 6-4 but was unable to covert either. Vekic finally won the set on her second set point to close out the first set 9-7 in the tiebreak.

Chair Umpire overrule leaves Gauff in tears

In the second set, it was Vekic who broke serve for the first time to go up 4-2, although it came in controversial circumstances. The American hit a serve and Vekic’s return landed close to the baseline. A line judge called Vekic’s return out and Gauff hit her shot into the net.

However, the chair umpire Jaume Campistol overruled and handed the point to Vekic. Gauff argued unsuccessfully against the umpire, saying that the call was made before she hit her shot, and was in tears before the match continued.

“I never argue these calls. But he called it out before I hit the ball,” Gauff said to the umpire. “It’s not even a perception; it’s the rules. I always have to advocate for myself.”

After the match, Gauff then reiterated her frustration, calling for a video review system to be implemented in tennis.

“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,” she said.

“Usually, afterwards they apologise. 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 being down a break… Maybe replaying that point can make a big difference in that game.

“But I’m not going to sit here and say one point affected the result today, because I was already on the losing side of things before that point happened.”

Vekic then broke a second time in the eighth game to complete the 7-6, (9-7), 6-2 in just under two hours and move into the quarter-finals. This was the first career meeting between the two players.

Gauff is still alive in the women’s doubles (with Jessica Pegula) and in the mixed doubles (Taylor Fritz) and will be hoping to medal in those categories. Vekic will go on to face either seventh seed Maria Sakkari or 12th seed Marta Kostyuk in the next round.

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