Tennis News: Coco Gauff, Brad Gilbert and the bad line call

Coco Gauff has seemingly had to complain about calls made against her more this year than in her previous seasons. She almost always handles the on-court issue with as much poise as one could have, but the stress of having bad calls made against her can certainly take a toll. The latest problem popped up at the Olympics.

Gauff was playing Donna Vekic when, in the second set and with Gauff attempting to hold serve, the Croatian hit a return that was first called out until the chair umpire overruled the call. Gauff had hit the return into the net as the call was seemingly made before she had a chance to hit Vekic's return back. In other words, the American thought she had won the point.

Instead, Vekic was awarded the point and broke Gauff to take a 4-2 lead in the second set. The key is that Vekic had also won the first set 7-6(7) so getting broken so late in the second set almost cemented the loss for Gauff.

Did a bad line-call change the Coco Gauff versus Donna Vekic match at the Olympics?

Gauff's coach, Brad Gilbert, took to social media to argue Gauff's point as well. Gilbert stated, "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 said in her post-match press conference, "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 (Video Assistant Referee) system because these points are big deals."

She also admitted the point might not have changed the match and that is key. Gauff really only has herself to blame - or credit to Vekic - for the American being in the situation she was in. She dropped the first set and was not playing well enough in the second set to mount a definite comeback. In fact, she was broken again in the second set to fall 2-6.

VAR is important and needs to be implemented to take out any incorrect decisions by officials that affect matches. But no one should be overly upset about the bad line-call in Gauff versus Vekic because Gauff was not going to win the match anyway.

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