Coco Gauff has called for tennis to universally implement a Video Review system after she was reduced to tears following a controversial decision made by the umpire in her French Open semifinal defeat to Iga Świątek.
With Gauff leading 2-1 in the second set, a line judge called her return of serve “out” but the umpire overruled the decision. The American then argued the line judge’s call impacted her shot, but the umpire disagreed.
A tearful Gauff regained her composure to break Świątek’s serve but went on to lose 6-2 6-4 to the World No. 1.
“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 are usually multiple refs making a decision,” Gauff told reporters.
“I know the US Open brought some of it last year, I believe, I know we used it in our doubles at one point. I definitely think at this point it’s almost ridiculous we don’t have it. Not 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?
“In situations you can call for the supervisor, but there’s not much they can do from that standpoint. 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.”
The video review system uses the same technology that is behind the sport’s ‘Hawkeye’ system and allows players to challenge decisions such as double bounces or foul shots. It has been used in the ATP Finals after first being trialed in the Next Gen Finals and was introduced for the first time at a grand slam at last year’s US Open.
While the reception to the technology has been largely positive, Andy Murray was left bemused during last year’s US Open when the video review malfunctioned during his first-round match against Corentin Moutet.
Świątek, however, said she doesn’t know how the technology “would look logistically.”
“When can you ask an umpire to call a video replay or when is it up to her to do that because I think the umpire today was pretty sure with her call,” she added, per Reuters.
“So I don’t know how that would look like.”
