Coco Gauff had a few choice words toward a chair umpire about a potentially match-altering call at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Wednesday.
The 2023 US Open champion was feeling the pressure after dropping the first set in the Round of 16 clash with No. 36 Karolina Pliskova and fought back to earn a 4-2 lead in the second set.
At deuce, her first serve was called out by chair umpire Pierre Bacchi, which came as a surprise to the world No. 3, who expected to earn the point after challenging the call.
Rather, Bacchi ruled that the point should be replayed while Gauff continued to argue for her point because the umpire’s call came after Pliskova failed to return the serve, hitting it into the net.
A near five-minute debate ensued that found Gauff visibly frustrated and Pliskova amused by the debate, seemingly ready to move on with the match.
“You called it out way after she hit it,” said Gauff at the start of the clip. “Yes, you did.”
“I called it right away,” Bacchi rebuttled. “As I remember, I called it right away.”
“You did not. The call was a late call,” Gauff argued back.
“Not for me,” the umpire responded.
Throughout the rest of video, Gauff continuously asks for Bacchi to call his supervisor to ask him or her what the rule is — whether to call the ball out before the return or after the return.
Bacchi’s audio is unclear but he seems to keep stating his belief that he had made the correct call.
“Can you not cut me off for two seconds?” she asked.
“You can’t tell me the rule. If I’m questioning the rule, you have to call the supervisor. That’s in my right. I know it is,” Gauff demanded.
“You’re going to apologize after this match because you know you messed up,” she said. “I’ve never questioned anything like this before.”
At the conclusion of the heated debate, Gauff ended up replaying the point and to her benefit, it did not derail the rest of the match. Rather, it helped her pull out the 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory in one hour and 53 minutes.
“It definitely gave me some adrenaline,” she said. “Luckily I was able to overcome that pretty quickly. I’m glad I was able to reset.”
2003 US Open champ and former US tennis player, Andy Roddick, came to Gauff’s aide, calling Bacchi “completely wrong” on X.
“This is an absurd exchange for this umpire. 1. He’s completely wrong 2. He’s lying about being wrong. 3. She must have simply said 10 plus times, I’d like the supervisor,” Roddick wrote. “That’s not a judgement call. He simply needed to honor that normal request and call the supervisor. Coco did well here. That’s before her opponent also not acknowledging truth (which she certainly didn’t have to do).”
In the quarterfinals match on Thursday afternoon, the soon-to-be 20-year-old lost to Russian world No. 40 Anna Kalinskaya 6-4, 4-6, 2-6.
It was Gauff’s third quarterfinal match of the year after a victory in Auckland before reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open.
