ATLANTA — In an emotion-filled round for Atlanta-born tennis star Coco Gauff, her gold medal campaign came to an end when she fell to Croatia's Donna Vekic, 7-6, 6-2.
The loss for No. 2-seeded Gauff was highlighted by a heated debate with the chair umpire over a questionable call that brought the American tennis phenom to tears.
It was nearly deja vu for Gauff, who found herself in a nearly identical situation at the same stadium that's used every year for the French Open. Last month, in that same stadium, Gauff was entangled in a heated dispute over a call after being beaten by eventual champion Iga Swiatek.
During the exchange, Gauff walked over to the chair umpire in an argument that caused the match to be delayed for several minutes.
Gauff spoke about that eerily similar feeling after her match.
“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 said afterward, renewing a call for video review to be used in tennis, as it is in many other professional sports.
“I felt that he called it before I hit, and I don’t think the ref disagreed,” she said. “I think he just thought it didn’t affect my swing, which I felt like it did.”
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