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Coco Gauff’s Olympic dreams in singles tennis have come to an end. Her Round 3 competitor, Croatia’s Donna Vekić, defeated Gauff 7-6(7), 6-2. It is Vekić, not Gauff, who will be continuing on to the quarterfinals for a chance to win an Olympic gold medal.
It was looking like Gauff was going to cruise to the next round early on after going up 4-1 in the opening set. But Vekić fought back and forced a tie-break before eventually going ahead.
It was the first time in the tournament that Gauff had dropped a set.
Things didn’t get better from there. She didn’t have the same oomph she did in the first set, and then an argument with the chair umpire scrambled the match for good.
Huge argument in the Donna Vekic – Coco Gauff match. Umpire called the ball out before Gauff returned the ball and missed it in break point for Vekic. Ball was in. Coco Gauff crying and saying this always happens to me 😭 pic.twitter.com/Fv8zreC1hY
— edgeAI (@edgeaiofficial) July 30, 2024
Gauff to the Supervisor while crying.
“I feel like I’m getting cheated constantly in this game. This is the 3rd time this happens to me this year”.
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) July 30, 2024
After that, it didn’t take long for Vekić to capture the win.
After the match, Gauff called for tennis to use video play like other sports.
“There’s been multiple times this year where that’s happened to me — where I felt like I always have to be an advocate for myself on the court,” Gauff told reporters afterward.
“I felt that he called it before I hit, and I don’t think the ref disagreed. I think he just thought it didn’t affect my swing, which I felt like it did.”
Gauff’s first-round victory over Australia’s Ajla Tomljanović made her the youngest American woman to win in Olympic singles since Venus Williams in 2000. She beat Argentina’s Maria Lourdes Carle in the second round to set up Tuesday’s match against Vekić.
It had been quite an Olympics for the 20-year-old Gauff. She was named one of the two U.S. flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony along with NBA star LeBron James and is also winner of the Olympic pin game, thanks to Snoop Dogg.
Vekić will next face the winner of the match between Marta Kostyuk and Maria Sakkari with a spot in the semifinals on the line. Gauff still has matches in doubles and mixed doubles.
