American women tennis stars failed to deliver when it mattered the most! However, there wasn’t any shortage of drama in their Paris Olympics campaign. Coco Gauff, Danielle Collins, and Emma Navarro were in the headlines for the wrong causes. Collins was caught in her fiery mood during her QF match against Iga Swiatek. She was heavily criticized for her prolonged altercation with the World No.1 after the American announced her retirement from the match. Navarro faced a similar backlash from the fans for her harsh comments on China’s Zheng Qinwen after their R3 match. However, fans feel Gauff’s incident was a bit different from the other two!

The 20-year-old American tennis star was spotted having a confrontation with the chair umpire, Jaume Campistol during her third-round match against Croatia’s Donna Vekić. It all started in the second set of that match when one of Vekic’s shots was initially called out but later on, got corrected by the umpire. Gauff was clearly disappointed with this call and she protested against allowing the Croatian to get away with the point. She demanded that the point should be replayed and even accused the umpire of “cheating“.

Vekic eventually won the set and match by 7-6,6-2, and brought an end to the campaign of America’s youngest flag bearer at the Olympics. According to fans, Gauff was just trying to justify her stance to the umpire and nothing else. However, Collins was involved in two incidents in the same match against Swiatek which caused a fair bit of controversy afterwards.

Swiatek had taken the first set by 6-1, but then Collins came back strongly to level up the scoreline with a 6-2 result in the second set. Now, during the decider, the American hit a fiery backhand that struck Swiatek on her rib and she fell to the ground. Although she got up a few moments later, the Polish tennis star later on revealed, “I could not breathe for a moment. It hurt for a bit.”

Things didn’t end here, Collins eventually retired from that match with the scoreline well poised in favor of Swiatek at 6-1,2-6,4-1. She cited an injury to her stomach muscle as the primary reason for her withdrawal. However, during the handshake, she was yet again found having a lengthy conversation with Swiatek and this is exactly where the fans have all the objections.

Fans defend Gauff for being clubbed with Collins and Navarro for the Olympics controversy

After the match, Gauff broke down in tears and said, “I feel like I’m getting cheated constantly in this game. This is the 3rd time this happens to me this year. It always happens to me on this court.” For those who are unaware, a similar controversy took place at her SF match against Swiatek in the 2024 French Open. Reflecting on what happened in Gauff’s match, one fan wrote, “No do people seriously not realize Coco’s incident is not remotely similar to Navarro’s and Collins’s? I’m not saying it wasn’t objectionable but Emma and Danielle directly denigrated their opponents, Coco got into an argument with the UMPIRE.“

Speaking more about Collins’ match, the 30-year-old tennis star later on, revealed her topic of discussion with Swiatek at the net. She said, “I told Iga she didn’t have to be insincere about, you know, my injury.” Collins went on to add, “There’s a lot that happens on camera, and there are a lot of people with a ton of charisma and come out and are one way on camera and another way in the locker room. And I just haven’t had the best experience, and I don’t really feel like anybody needs to be insincere. They can be the way that they are. I can accept that, and I don’t need the fakeness.“

After hearing these lines from Collins, fans feel it’s quite unjust to connect this with Gauff’s incident. “Fr people love to connect dots that aren’t even there,” said the other.

Even Navarro was engaged in a heated post-match handshake with her Chinese opponent in her R3 match. While giving her thoughts on what she had actually said to Zheng during that interaction, Navarro revealed, “I just told her I didn’t respect her as a competitor. I think she goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way.“

However, she did acknowledge her opponent’s performance in that match and also congratulated her. According to fans irrespective of this congratulatory message, whatever she said to her previously is equally “disrespectful”. A fan wrote, “Exactly… what navarro and collins did was just straight-up disrespectful. Although coco was wrong about the call, she wasn’t in any way rude.“

Another fan brought in a controversial moment involving Vekic and Zheng during the final match. Vekic was a bit disappointed with Zheng dragging out with her serve and even spoke a few words about her later on. Reflecting on the same lines, another fan wrote, “Yeah exactly. She didn’t shit-talk her fellow players…if anything it’s donna who did that to QZ.”

Gauff has been a victim of online hatred for quite a while now. She has been on the receiving end of social media abuse and many other negative things in the past. So, forcing her entry into any controversy that is not even related to her is not a new thing according to some fans. They say, “Maybe if you realize Coco is the main target for most haters.” Haters try to make her life miserable, but the youngster has now found a lethal weapon to counter all of that stuff!