America Screwed Again: U.S. Tennis Olympian Coco Gauff Brought to Tears After Controversial Call That Led to Her Being Upset in The Round of 16

PARIS — The top American tennis player Coco Gauff is out of the Olympic women’s singles under controversial circumstances after a 6-7, 2-6 defeat to Croatia’s Donna Vekic on Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros.

A high-quality contest was overshadowed by a disputed line call at a crucial juncture in the second set, prompting Gauff to say, “I feel like I’m getting cheated on constantly in this game,” adding that “it happens to me, it happened to Serena (Williams).”

At 2-3, 30-40, Gauff served into Vekic’s forehand, and as Gauff prepared to hit a return that went deep to the baseline, a linesperson called the ball out as the American swung for a forehand. Gauff pulled up and sent the ball into the net.

The chair umpire then overturned the point because Vekic’s ball had landed in, giving her the break of Gauff’s serve to go up, 4-2. That prompted Gauff to appeal that the call had hindered the completion of her swing.

Afterward, Gauff, who was the flagbearer for Team USA alongside LeBron James, said that she “felt that they called it before I hit.

“I don’t think the ref disagreed. I think he just thought it didn’t, like, affect my swing, which I felt like it did.

“There have been multiple times this year where that happened to me where I feel like I always have to be an advocate for myself on the court. I feel like in tennis, we should have a VAR (Video Assistant Referee) system because these points are big deals. Usually, afterwards they apologize.

Another despicable display by the French. The country of France has been shamelessly doing whatever is in their power to clip America's wings at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics in a futile effort to beat us out in the final medal count. For example, for this years Olympics, France decided to make their pool .75 meters shallower than normal. And as we all know, American swimmers are famously great deep water swimmers.  

They also had the nerve to enforce the Olympic, "only 2 gymnasts can qualify per country for the individual all-around" rule that has been in place since 1976, to prevent a potential American sweep. 

Then just this morning, in a crucial moment of Coco Gauff's Round of 16 match vs Croatia's Donna Vekic, the evil French officials reached deep into their bag of tricks to assure a break point for Vekic. A break point that would essentially turn out to be the nail in the coffin for the United States' best chance at a tennis gold.

Olympics are insane about suing people who try promote their sport, but here's a link to clip (it's on your official NBC YouTube channel, Olympics… I hope that's ok with you). Skip ahead to the 4:50 second mark of the video for the crying incident.

It took me a second to figure out what exactly happened here. Vekic's return was on the line. But the French linesman, who's obviously still salty about not dying in WWII, screams "OUT!" at the top of their lungs as Coco Gauff is in the midst of her shot. Gauff, distracted by the linesmen's booming "OUT!" call, returns the ball feebly into the net. Then after her shot is hit, the chair judge leaps out of his big tall chair to overturn the call. The linesman was wrong. The ball was actually in. Point Croatia. Just as France has planned.

Ok sorry I'm done with the stupid France jokes. I do not think France is out to get us because they want to beat us in medals and secretly wish they had been conquered by Hitler and were living under a Nazi regime. I don't even know if the linesman is French. I just think that he/she is horrible at his/her job. I also think the rules of Olympic tennis are stupid. There is no video review in Olympic tennis. So once an official screams "OUT!", the play should be called dead. These tennis matches are played in complete silence. When a ref screams out, it's jarring. The players are going to stop dead in their tracks. It's one thing to overturn a call along the line that had no chance of being returned. But in a game of split second decisions, you can't just scream "OUT!" then do a quick "NEVERMIND!" all while a player is hitting the ball and expect play to go on as normal. That's chaos.

That being said, I'm not convinced at all that the linesman affected Coco Guaff's shot whatsoever. It kinda seems like she'd already struck the ball when it was called out and was using the chaotic "OUT! NO WAIT IT'S ACTUALLY IN!" call as a scapegoat in a match where she was already frustrated and playing from behind. 

Also, Coco Gauff… I'm a fan of yours… but we can't be crying on the court. There's no crying in tennis. In tennis, the proper thing to do is throw a much louder, much angrier John McEnroe-esque temper tantrum. Berate the judge and/or smash your tennis racket into a hard surface over and over and over again until it's broken into a million pieces.

That's how you behave on a tennis court.

But still… whether it affected Gauff's shot or not, it's a bullshit rule. If the ref incorrectly calls the ball out, then tough shit. They should have to wear that. That's what's going to happen if you refuse to use the technology at your disposal because you think it makes your Olympics more pure (or whatever bullshit reasoning they have for not utilizing VAR). And if they must overturn the call, they at least should have to replay the point. 

Fix your sport Olympic tennis. Use instant replay. Then the line judges can sit there with their mouths shut all match. If any ball is remotely close they can let play on, and if it turns out in the end the ball was out then replay will fairly rectify the situation. It's not that hard Olympics. I promise the Greek God of Games or whoever you're trying to impress with your refusal to use technology will understand.