Coco Gauff (USA) is out of the women’s tennis singles at the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports PARIS — American Coco Gauff’s hopes of singles gold at the Olympics evaporated in the third round in a 7-6 (7), 6-2 to defeat at the hands of Croatia’s Donna Vekic in furnace-like conditions at Roland Garros on Tuesday.
Defending Olympic champion Alexander Zverev kept cool in soaring temperatures to march into the third round of the men’s singles, but not everyone controlled their temperature on the court.
The 20-year-old Gauff, seeded No. 2 and the United States’ female flagbearer at the opening ceremony, held a 5-2 lead in the opening set but Vekic responded to turn the match on its head with stunning ground strokes and 33 winners.
Gauff was in tears — and down 4-2 in the second set — following a disputed line call after which she argued with chair umpire Jaume Campistol and the referee for several minutes before continuing.
Vekic saved two set points in a crucial opening set tiebreak to become the first Croatian to reach the Olympic women’s singles quarterfinals since Iva Majoli in 1996.
Germany’s Zverev, the third seed, took to a sun-baked Court Philippe Chatrier after Gauff’s demise but avoided any similar mishaps as he beat Czech player Tomas Machac 6-3, 7-5.
Gauff’s loss wasn’t the only upset in Paris on Tuesday.
Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova swatted aside fourth-seed Jasmine Paolini in three sets (7-5, 3-6, 7-5) and advanced into the quarterfinals.
After leading 5-3 in the first set, the Italian had a dip in form, having a hard time returning some of Schmiedlova’s long groundstrokes, so much that she conceded it 7-5.
Paolini, who was a contender for a medal after reaching the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon this year, won the second set easily but a new load of unforced errors — 52 against 32 in the whole match — and a lack of focus made her lose the third despite having served for the match at 5-4.
U.S. Open champion Gauff was left angry and in tears as an overruled line call which left her 4-2 down in the second set, the American being overheard saying “I’m being cheated.”
Her long protest with the umpire and supervisor came to nothing.
The sun-baked Philippe Chatrier crowd got behind Gauff after that but after Gauff took the next point, the ice-cool Vekic, seeded 13th, sealed the win.
Gauff refused to blame the dispute for her loss but insisted, with some justification, that the point should have been replayed because the line judge’s initial shout of “out” impeded her stroke.
“I felt that he called it before I hit and I don’t think the referee disagreed but he just thought it didn’t affect my swing which I felt like it did,” Gauff said. “I mean, there’s 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 VR (video review) because these points are big deals. Afterwards they apologize, but sorry doesn’t help you once the match is over.
“But I’m not going to sit here and say one point effected the result today. I was already on the losing side of things.”
Zverev reached the French Open final this year and looked perfectly at home on the Parisian clay as he maintained a strong start to his bid to repeat his Tokyo gold.
He was pushed hard in the second set as the heat took its toll but turned on the afterburners at 5-5 with two searing forehand passes earning him the crucial break of serve before he sealed the contest a game later.
With temperatures soaring into the mid 90s at Roland Garros, the International Tennis Federation invoked the extreme heat protocols that allowed for a 10-minute break after the second set of singles matches.
It came too late for Britain’s Jack Draper, who bowed out in the second round to American seventh seed Taylor Fritz despite edging a first set on the tiebreak.
“I’m a big sweater so to retain fluid was tough. It was pretty poor,” he said. “They give bottles to the players but the bottles don’t stay cool, so, you know, you’re drinking hot water out there. That’s not fun in those sort of conditions.”
Germany’s Angelique Kerber, a singles silver-medalist in Rio de Janeiro, will retire after the Olympics but moved in sight of a spectacular final chapter to her career as she beat Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.
The 28-year-old Vekic suffered a heart-breaking loss to Paolini in the Wimbledon semifinals but has bounced back impressively in Paris.
She said the atmosphere on the court was one of the best she had played in.
“It was very, very tough. When we practiced this morning the roof was closed so it took me a couple of games to adjust (to the heat). The ball was flying a little bit,” Vekic said. “The support has been unbelievable and I’m having a great time in the village so hopefully I can win one or two matches more. Then we can talk about medals.”
–Reuters, Special to Field Level Media
