© Getty Images Sport – Matthew Stockman
American tennis icon Chris Evert was left shocked after watching a video of Coco Gauff’s discussion with chair umpire Pierre Bacchi in Dubai, asking “what is wrong” with the French umpire who “denied a respectful request” from the top-ranked American female tennis player.
On Wednesday, world No. 3 Gauff felt she was a victim of an unfair call and chair umpire Bacchi refusing to acknowledge his mistake led to a heated five-minute dispute on the court. Serving for a 5-2 lead in the second set against Karolina Pliskova, one of Gauff’s serves was called out – but it was a late call and happened only after the Czech already failed to get the ball back into the play.
After challenging the call on her serve and seeing that her serve was in, Gauff was left stunned after chair umpire Bacchi told her to replay the point instead of giving it to her already. That led to a heated discussion and Gauff numerously requesting to see the supervisor – chair umpire Bacchi didn’t grant it.
“You called it out after she hit it,” Gauff was heard telling the umpire… “Call the supervisor… you can’t deny me the supervisor. I’m gonna ask her what the rule is.”
