Coco Gauff‘s troubles with problematic officiating continue. After being left teary-eyed at the French Open due to a controversial call, the American tennis star was at the wrong end of a decision in Berlin before it was overturned. A technological failure during her first doubles match with Jessica Pegula in months at the WTA Berlin, nearly cost them a point.

Pegula and Gauff could not compete in the French Open together, as the former was out due to a rib injury. The dream partnership returned to the grass, but luck was not on their side. During the Round 1 match against Katerina Siniakova and Linda Noskova in Berlin, a line-call blunder took place during the first set.

During Siniakova’s serve in the fourth game, she returned a volley from Gauff far on Pegula’s backhand that seemed to be too strong for the American. Initially called legit, the Czechs were given the point, but Pegula challenged the call after a brief pause. To everyone’s surprise, Hawkeye showed the ball was far out of the line, and the decision was overturned.

Despite this, Siniakova and Noskova won the game, leveling the score at 2-2. The duo managed to maintain their momentum and recorded a victory in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0. This defeat was a blow to Gauff, who won the French Open doubles title this year with her partner, ironically, being Katerina Siniakova. Gauff has also won five doubles titles alongside Pegula. However, the error from the line-calling technology was a bigger talking point in her most recent outing.

While not in use at the French Open, grass tournaments have a ball-tracking system in place, but unfortunately, issues with calls persist.  

Jannik Sinner had to experience similar trouble during his clash with Zhizhen Zhang in the semifinal of the ATP Halle Open. A serve from Zhang was out, but the electronic line-calling system malfunctioned, resulting in no call from the umpire, which led the Chinese player to believe he hit an ace.

The umpire then announced that the system had failed to make the call and that the serve was actually out. Although, the decision was in his favor, Sinner walked up to the umpire to let Zhang have a first serve due to the confusion.

The line-calling technology has primarily been used on hard and grass surfaces, with clay courts slow to warming up to the idea. But technology or not, the American continues to suffer from bad calls.

In her French Open singles defeat against Iga Swiatek, she had a heated argument with the chair umpire, believing a point she lost should have been replayed. Unfortunately, the argument did not go her way, and she went on to blast the rules after her match, proposing a new addition to the sport.

Coco Gauff calls for a change in ‘ridiculous’ rules

The French Open controversy left a lasting impact on Gauff. She lost the clash in straight sets 6-2, 6-4, and was left teary-eyed from the incident as it handed her the third consecutive defeat from Swiatek at Stade Roland-Garros. She blasted the age-old rule in tennis and called for the use of replay technology across all tournaments.

Gauff said, “100% I think it’s you know tennis is the only sport where not only we don’t have the VAR system but a lot of times the decisions are you know made by one person in other sports there’s usually multiple refs and and making a decision and I know US Open um I think brought some of it last year I believe and I know we used it in our doubles at one point um so yeah I definitely think that at this point it’s almost ridiculous that we don’t have it not also just speaking because that happened to me.”

Further, the American sensation has also shared how players feel after seeing calls go against them, especially when their argument is correct. The 20-year-old hopes for a system like VAR in soccer to be implemented in tennis, but she acknowledges that implementation will take a long time. Will it suit the sport?