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Coco Gauff publicly calls for tennis rule change after her match with Iga Swiatek at the French Open

Photo by Foto Olimpik/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Photo by Foto Olimpik/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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Coco Gauff stressed the need for tennis to introduce a video replay system following her defeat to Iga Swiatek at the French Open.

With the 20-year-old who was a set down against World number one during Thursday’s semi-final, things became even more challenging following a disagreement with the chair umpire.

Early in the second set official Aurelie Tourte overruled a decision on a serve from Swiatek that the line judge initially called out, with Gauff sending her return long.

The American was incensed and pleaded her case but to no avail, and she was left in tears while she walked back to her side of the court.

Coco Gauff urges tennis to introduce a new rule

Following the incident, it seemed to fire up Gauff and she began to play more consistently for a moment. But ultimately Swiatek’s class and ruthlessness prevailed as she registered a 6-2, 6-4 win to advance to her third successive Roland Garros final.

During her post-match press conference Gauff was bemused by the fact that tennis does not have their own video replay system called on tennis to introduce a new system. “100%,” the third seed told reporters.

“I think tennis is the only sport where not only we don’t have the VR system, but a lot of times the decisions are made by one person. In other sports there’s usually multiple refs in making a decision.

“I definitely think at this point it’s almost ridiculous that we don’t have it. Not also just speaking because that happened to me, but I just think every sport has it.

“Also, there are so many decisions that are made, and it sucks as a player to go back or online and you see that you were completely right, and it’s, like, what does that give you in that moment?

“I definitely think as a sport we have to evolve, and we have the technology. They’re showing it on TV, so I don’t get why the player can’t see it.”

French Open Tennis Tournament. Roland-Garros 2024.
Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images

Gauff suffers 11th defeat to Iga Swiatek

Gauff reached the Roland Garros semi-finals for the second time in her career and for the third successive year, she was up against Swiatek.

Having seen Naomi Osaka cause the Pole plenty of problems with her aggressive game in the second round, the American tried to do the same.

But she committed too many unforced errors, especially off the forehand and her serve did not deliver as consistently as needed it to.

Swiatek effortlessly dealt with the challenge of Gauff to reach the final where she will play Jasmine Paolini who is in search of her first Grand Slam title.