Coco Gauff’s coach Brad Gilbert reacts to controversial Paris 2024 line call that ended American’s singles dream

Shahida Jacobs
An upset Coco Gauff during her match
An upset Coco Gauff

Tennis should introduce “incidental replays” with renowned coach Brad Gilbert saying the sport needs to change following the latest line controversy involving Coco Gauff at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Reigning US Open champion Gauff’s singles participation at the 2024 Games at Roland Garros came to a dramatic end in the third round as she lost 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 against Donna Vekic of Croatia.

There was drama midway through the second set with a call leaving the American furious.

A Vekic return was initially called out by the linesperson with Gauff then hitting her return into the net, but the chair umpire then overruled the original call and the point was awarded to the Croatian.

It gave Vekic the crucial break and she went 4-2 up, but Gauff was upset and argued her case with the officials, but to no avail.

Tennis has been using Hawkeye for more than two decades, but it is only used for line calls and not for other controversial moments.

Gauff’s coach Gilbert feels it is time for the sport to introduce replays across the board as he wrote on X: “I have said since we introduced Hawkeye replay calls like 20 years ago, That we should absolutely have incidental replays, umpires should have a tv monitor to look at replay, same with tournament referee if they come to court, must see replay quickly.”

Gauff first argued with the tournament officials as she felt victimised.

“I feel like I’m getting cheated on constantly in this game,” she said at one point, adding “it happens to me, it happened to Serena [Williams].”

During the post-match press conference, the American insisted that the call was made before she hit her return into the net and said that the sport should use a Video Assistant Referee [VAR].

“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 apologise,” she said.

“It’s kind of frustrating when the sorry doesn’t help you once the match is over.

“I can’t say I would have won the match if I would have won that point. But being down a break… Maybe replaying that point can make a big difference in that game.”

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Although she acknowledged that no one knows if it will have changed the outcome of the match itself.

The 20-year-old added: “But I’m not gonna sit here and say one point affected the result today, because I was already on the losing side of things before that point happened.”