Coco Gauff was visibly frustrated over a controversial line call Tuesday at the Paris Olympics, and went on to lose her third-round singles match to Croatia’s Donna Vekic, video of the incident showed.
Gauff was trailing 3-2 in the second set when Vekic hit a service return that was called out by the line judge. So the American eased up on her backhand response, prompting a miss, USA Today reported.
But chair umpire Jaume Campistol ruled the ball in and gave Vekic the break point and the game for a 4-2 lead. While arguing her case, Gauff began to cry.
Vekic won the last two games to take the match, 7-6 (7), 6-2.
“I never argue these calls. But he called it out before I hit the ball,” Gauff told Campistol in a video of the exchange. “It always happens to me on this court.” She then tried to make her case with another official.
Gauff argued a similar incident during her elimination from the French Open in June, when Iga Swiatek’s serve was initially ruled out but then called in by the umpire, Eurosport previously reported. She cried then as well while announcer Chris Evert asserted that Gauff was in the right because the call impacted her next shot.
On a steamy Tuesday in Paris, Gauff’s eyes welled with tears and it appeared as though she was trying to stifle them.
“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 The Associated Press afterward.
Gauff, the U.S. Open champion who was the No. 2 seed, is still alive in women’s doubles and mixed doubles.