Gauff out of Paris 2024 after controversial loss to Donna Vekic

In a surprising and contentious turn of events, Coco Gauff, the Olympic opening ceremony flag bearer for Team USA, has been knocked out of the women’s singles competition. Gauff lost to Croatia’s Donna Vekic with a score of 7-6, 6-2.

Despite her strong performance in the first two rounds and her impressive track record on the clay of Roland Garros during the French Open, Gauff struggled in Tuesday’s match. The 17-year-old star was visibly disappointed by the outcome.

Coco Gauff talking through tears as she’s not happy with the umpire in her match at Olympics

Vekic’s ball was called out, but it was in, so the line judge corrected it.

Coco hit that ball into the net.

The umpire says it’s Donna’s point. He believes the ‘out’ call didn’t… pic.twitter.com/VKoCV79bOT

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The match took a controversial turn when, down 7-6, 3-2, Gauff faced a crucial break point at 30-40. As she prepared to hit a backhand, the linesperson called the ball out before Gauff swung her racket, causing her to decelerate and miss. However, the chair umpire overruled the out call and awarded the point to Vekic.

Gauff immediately contested the decision, leading to a five-minute argument that involved the tournament supervisor. During the heated exchange, Gauff appeared to be crying and expressed her frustration, saying, “I feel like I’m getting cheated constantly in this game.”

Despite the setback, Gauff had an opportunity to get back into the match in the next game, reaching 0-40 on Vekic’s serve. However, Vekic managed to save the break points and extend her lead to 5-2. A shaken Gauff was then easily broken, allowing Vekic, who recently made the Wimbledon semifinals, to close out the match.

Although Gauff is out of the singles competition, she still has chances to win medals in doubles and mixed doubles.