Coco Gauff is left in TEARS during French Open semi-final defeat after furious row with umpire

Coco Gauff said the umpire ‘should be ashamed’ during a tearful row as she lost 6-2, 6-4 to Iga Swiatek in the semi-finals of the French Open.

The Polish world No. 1 will go for her third title in a row here at Roland Garros on Saturday, against the winner of the second semi-final between Mirra Andreeva and Jasmine Paolini.

For 20-year-old Gauff it was an afternoon of frustration and fury in Paris. The flashpoint came as Gauff was trying to claw her way back into the match, leading 2-1 in the second set on the Swiatek serve.

Swiatek’s second serve was called out just as Gauff hit her return long. But when the umpire overruled the call and awarded the point to Swiatek, Gauff furiously insisted that she hit her return after the ball had already been called out, and so the point should have been replayed.

‘He called it and then I hit it. I’m a thousand per cent sure,’ said the American.

‘For me it did not affect your shot,’ replied umpire Aurelie Tourte.

‘If he called it before I hit it, I stop my reaction. I didn’t even finish my follow-through. He called it before I hit it. Will you ask him?’

‘No, we cannot ask him.’

The crowd were booing enthusiastically at this point – a Pavlovian reaction from the fans here whenever any incident occurs.

‘They’re booing because you’re wrong,’ said Gauff.

‘For me it did not affect the shot.’

‘You’re wrong. It’s the second time that happened. You should be ashamed. It’s a grand slam semi-final, know the rules of the game.’

Gauff eventually let it go and appeared to be wiping away tears as she walked back to her mark.

So, who was right? Replays suggest the call happened at the same instant as Gauff played her return. That makes it marginal either way but Gauff’s argument that the call made her pull out of her follow-through is a convincing one.

Gauff did end up breaking in that game for a 3-1 lead but Swiatek won the next four games in a row and served out a comfortable win.

Their head to head now reads 11-1 in the Pole’s favour and on this evidence it is difficult to see Gauff improving that any time soon.

The problem in a one-on-one sport like tennis is that when a player’s natural game matches up so poorly against another, they are forced to go outside their comfort zone and that can almost shift the match up even further the other way.

Both these players like to rally and run, wearing their opponents down with controlled aggression. And Gauff is better at that style of play than any other player in the world – with one unfortunate exception.

So Gauff came out here and tried to blast Swiatek off the Philippe Chatrier court – as Naomi Osaka so nearly did in the second round. But that was Osaka playing her natural game; this was Gauff overreaching.

The first two points of the match saw her blast two forehands well long and that was sadly predictive of the rest of the set.

The result was that Swiatek was able to settle into don’t miss mode and wait for her opponent to hand her the set. The 23-year-old ended the first set with two winners, four forced errors and five unforced – surely the first time she has won a set 6-2 with such modest statistics. Gauff had 12 winners but 11 forced and 18 unforced errors.

So of the 31 points Swiatek required to take the first set, 29 were courtesy of Gauff errors.

Gauff improved in the second set. She was more selective in her aggression and focused more on depth than power, pinning Swiatek back at times. But the unforced error count was still far too high and the match ended, as it had begun, with a Gauff forehand ballooning long.

So Swiatek marches on towards what everyone expects will be a fourth French Open title in five years. And Gauff must once again sit down with her team and address this most pertinent question: how on earth can I beat Iga Swiatek?