World number two Cori Gauff sensationally lost to Croatian Donna Vekic (6:7, 2:6) in the third round of the Olympic Games. The 20-year-old American had hoped to bring her country at least a silver medal, as she had a decent draw given her high ranking.
On the other half is Iga Swiatek, the world number one. Iga is the absolute favourite for the Games, which are being held on the courts of her beloved Roland Garros. Cory only got to meet her in the final. Arina Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina do not play at the Olympic Games, so he was ruled out of meeting them even in the semi-finals.
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Gauff’s most formidable potential rivals on the way to the title were the top-10 WTA players Yasmine Paolini, Jessica Pegula, Barbora Krejcikova and Maria Sakkari, who are quite beatable. Paolini, Pegula and Sakkari had already been eliminated, and the Corrie half of the draw was further simplified, but the American herself entered the losers’ list after the match with Vekic. And there was quite a bit of drama, as the young Gauff cried over an argument with the umpire.
The start of the match with Vekic was quite successful for Gauff. In the fourth game, Cory broke and gained the advantage. The American had excellent opportunities to close the match with a 5:2 advantage in her favor, but missed a set point. Later, Donna made a break. And then she defended herself from two more set points, losing in the tiebreak 4:6. In the end, Vekic’s nerves became a little stronger and she won the tiebreak with a score of 9:7. An offensive turn for Gauff, but the second racket of the world still had a chance to recover.
Cori Gauff at the 2024 Olympics
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
The second set started with an even fight. The turning point came at 3-2 in Vekic’s favour, when Gauff started to argue emotionally with umpire Jaume Campistol. When the Croatian was leading 40:30 on Corey’s serve, the linesman screamed at Donna’s shot. Gauff put the ball into the net. The chair umpire corrected the linesman’s decision by saying that the ball had entered the court and awarded the point to Vekic. In his opinion, the linesman’s scream was not an obstacle. A long dialogue between Gauff and the Spanish umpire followed.
Campistol: “This is my vision, I make this decision. I believe so and I must make a decision accordingly.”
Gauff: “It’s not fair, the scream was before hitting the ball.”
Campistol: “I’m not saying I’m right, but that’s what I think and that’s the decision I’m making.”
Gauff: “But you have to be 100% sure.”
Campistol: “I’m 100% sure… And now you’re telling me otherwise… I know I’m wrong, but I can’t change my mind after you complain.”
Gauff: “It’s not fair… He screamed before I hit the ball.”
Campistol: “It doesn’t matter”.
Gauff: “He does. He does it when the ball doesn’t fly so fast.”
Campistol: “The question is whether it affected the impact.”
Gauff: “He had an impact. He screamed before he hit it, that affects the swing. I was making a motion to hit the ball and he screamed before he hit it.”
Campistol: “I have to make a decision, and in this case…”
Gauff: “But you have to be 100% sure.”
Campistol: “I’m 100% sure.”
Gauff: “No, you just said yourself that I could be wrong.”
Campistol: “Judging by your reaction, I could be wrong. I have a decision to make.”
Gauff: “This happens to me all the time on this court (starts crying). This happens here all the time, always. You don’t understand. I have to defend myself all the time on this court! Constantly.”
Cori Gauff argues with supervisor Claire Wood
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
After that, supervisor Claire Wood came onto the court and began explaining to Gauff that the chair umpire made the decision in a split second.
Gauff: “He screamed, so I relaxed my swing and sent the ball into the net. It’s not even a millisecond. I could understand if everything happened at the same time, but he screamed first. It’s not even a matter of perception, it’s the rules. It’s not fair. This happened to me in Dubai, this happened to me here, and both times I was right. I never argue with decisions and you know that, but it’s not fair. I feel like I’m constantly being cheated in this game and I have to argue.”
The supervisor asked Gauff to be careful with her words. The discussion lasted nearly five minutes. The decision still stands. Before play resumed, Gauff said: “You guys are being unfair to me. I hope that one day the game will be fair, but it isn’t right now.”
Vekic finally managed to break the serve. After this situation, the audience booed Donna on her serve, which in no way prevented the Croat from winning all the remaining games and the match 7:6, 6:2.
It is worth paying tribute to Vekic, who is in excellent form this summer. Donna recently reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon, achieving the best result of her career in Grand Slam tournaments. She has won 12 of her last 14 matches and could realistically challenge for an Olympic medal given the strength of her remaining opponents in the group.
Donna Vekic at the 2024 Olympics
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
At the same time, Gauff could have competed with Vekic, but she openly broke down after arguing with the umpire. The 20-year-old tennis player can be understood to a certain extent. In many ways, her statements at the controversial moment seemed justified, but we cannot dwell on this episode. Yes, Vekic broke and gained the advantage, but Corey could have gotten even angrier on the court and fought back, but it turned out exactly the opposite.
Gauff, in her speech during a discussion with the umpire, mentioned that this was not the first time she had encountered injustice on the clay courts of Paris. On June 6 this year, Cory lost to Iga Swiatek (2-6, 4-6) in the semi-finals of Roland Garros. Then, with the score 2:6, 2:1, 0:15, the lineman screamed at Swiatek’s serve. Chair umpire Aurelie Tourte changed the decision and gave the point to Iga because Cory put him in contact. Gauff claimed that she was interrupted by the lineman’s scream. This did not particularly affect the outcome of the match. Swiatek dominates at Roland Garros and would have shut Gauff down in any situation. But the tendency with Corey’s outbursts in front of the judges is clearly visible. A young American needs to work on her psychology to avoid such situations. Yes, sometimes referees downright make mistakes at very important moments, but the best response is to maintain composure and increase aggression on the court so that these mistakes do not interfere with achieving results on the court.
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Mentally, Gauff has work to do. The incidents at Roland Garros and the Olympics were unpleasant, but the American still learned a valuable lesson: she needs to control herself. Corey is still very young. She won a TSB (US Open – 2023) and will probably add to her collection of major titles by the end of her career. There will be plenty if she sorts out her mental issues.
Gauff will not win an Olympic women’s singles medal for the United States this year, despite her hopes. She can do so in mixed doubles with Taylor Fritz and paired with Jessica Pegula. The American’s main task now is to get over the incident in the match with Vekic. To a certain extent, she has already done that. At least in the post-match press conference, Corey admitted that the referee’s decision alone could not have influenced the outcome. She also rightly advocated the use of a video replay system similar to that in football.
“In tennis, VAR is absolutely necessary. I’m not going to sit back. But I won’t say that any point influenced the result today. This has happened to me several times this year. I feel like I always have to protect myself on the court. Tennis needs VAR because lost points matter a lot. Usually after this the referees apologize. But apologizing after the match won’t help. I won’t say that I would have won the match if I had won that point. But if we had overcome it, the match could have been different,” Gauff said.
It would probably also do Corey good to leave the Olympic Village, about the living conditions of which he actively complained on social media.
Her teammates on the US team Emma Navarro, Danielle Collins and Jessica Pegula followed suit almost immediately, but for some reason Gauff decided to stay there and lived in not the most acceptable conditions since the opening of the Games. The move of Navarro and Pegula to a hotel did not help much, as they lost to Zheng Qingwen and Elina Svitolina, exiting the individual Olympic event early. Now only Collins can bring a medal to the United States, but in the quarterfinals she will face Swiatek and this scenario is extremely unlikely.
Realistically, the Americans can expect medals from tennis players in mixed doubles and doubles. Gauff and Pegula have particularly good chances. Only on July 31 will they play against Czechs Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova. Corey will have time to move to a hotel and cool off a bit after the match with Vekic. She was disappointingly eliminated in singles, but she is still capable of benefiting the country in other categories.
