Iga Swiatek gave her take on the argument between the match umpire and Coco Gauff during their semi-final match at the 2024 Roland Garros.
Gauff found herself in discussion with the match umpire Aurelie Tourte during her match against Swiatek at Roland Garros. It was a match Swiatek won in two sets, with the point in question being a relatively important one in the second set.
The American player was unhappy that the umpire awarded Swiatek the point, as she thought it should have been replayed. She said the line umpire’s call before the match umpire overturned it, distracted her, which is why she missed her return.
When asked about it after the match, Swiatek admitted that the whole situation made no sense to her, but she didn’t have a good vantage point to be sure.
“Well, I think here it would only be about you know the sound because if the line umpire called it after Coco’s return or not. I think he called it after her shot but I am never sure honestly because I am focusing kind of on myself. I don’t know what you guys think.”
Swiatek didn’t insert herself in the discussion between the umpire and Gauff because there was no need. The ruling benefitted her, and ultimately, umpires don’t really change their decision once they make it, and Tourte didn’t either.
“It’s the umpire’s decision so honestly I knew that if the umpire already made a decision she is not going to change it so I didn’t really want to get into the discussion because for me it didn’t really make sense but if Coco thought differently than it’s normal I guess to say something but I did not know honestly how the conversation look like.”
She also shared her thoughts on whether video replays would work in tennis, raising the question of how logistically all of that would be set up.