Paris, France—Tearful Coco Gauff was dumped out of the Olympics Games tennis tournament on Tuesday in a stormy defeat to impressive Donna Vekic of Croatia.
Vekic came through 7-6 (9/7), 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals after world number two Gauff claimed she was “getting cheated” in a lengthy argument with the chair umpire over a line call in the sixth game of the second set.
Gauff, who had already surrendered a 5-2 lead in the first set, lost her composure on break point when a ball from Vekic was called out.
However, Gauff then hit the return into the net as the chair umpire was correcting the original call and insisted the call had not hindered the American’s shot.
The 20-year-old wept as she pleaded her case but the point and break was awarded to Vekic.
“I have to advocate for myself all the time,” said an emotional Gauff.
“I’m getting cheated in this game. You guys are not fair to me.”
Vekic, ranked 21, briefly lost her composure, slipping to 0-40 on her own serve before recovering to hold, and she broke again to seal victory.
“It took me some time to adjust to the conditions because when we warmed up the roof was closed so it was completely different when we came out there,” she said.
“The ball was flying a little bit more so it took me a couple of games but after that I think I played pretty well and it was a really tough match.”
