Coco Gauff’s Olympic campaign is not going as planned.
The Atlanta native and teammate Jessica Pegula were eliminated by Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova in the second round of the women’s double competition at Roland-Garros Stadium on Wednesday.
Gauff and Pegula dominated the first set 6-2, but fell short to the Czech duo — who will face Su-Wei Hsieh and Chia Yi Tsao of Taiwan in the quarterfinals — in a rain-halted second set (4-6) before losing the third set tiebreaker.
It marks the end of the Olympics for Pegula, while Gauff remains in the mixed doubles draw with Taylor Fritz.
The fifth-seeded Pegula was eliminated in the second round of singles after losing in three sets — 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 — to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, who took home the bronze at the Tokyo Games.
On Tuesday, Gauff made headlines after arguing with the chair umpire during her third-round singles match against Donna Vekic of Croatia, which she lost 7-6 (9-7), 6-2.
The 20-year-old, who entered the Paris Games as the No. 2 seed in the women’s singles, was in tears during the match after being on the wrong end of a controversial call.
“There’s been multiple times this year where that’s happened to me — where I felt like I always have to be an advocate for myself on the court,” Gauff said after Tuesday’s loss.Last month, the reigning U.S. Open singles champion disputed a call during her French Open semifinals loss to Iga Swiatek.
“I feel like in tennis, we should have a VAR system because these points are big deals,” Gauff said. “Usually, afterwards they apologize. It’s kind of frustrating when the sorry doesn’t help you once the match is over.”Following an emotionally-charged morning for Team USA’s female flag bearer, she and double’s partner Fritz — who saw a third-round elimination to Lorenzo Musetti in the men’s singles on Wednesday – defeated Argentina’s Nadia Podorska and Maximo Gonzalez in Tuesday’s first-round mixed doubles match.
