Coco Gauff’s Paris Olympics campaign over with doubles loss
Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula of Team USA leave the court after their match with Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic was stopped by the rainfall during their women’s doubles match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
PARIS — Coco Gauff lost in women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, ending her first Summer Games a day after her tearful exit in singles.
“At the end of the day, it’s over,” the 20-year-old American said. “I’ll try to take the positive out of it and do better next time.”
Article continues after this advertisementGauff and her U.S. teammate, Jessica Pegula, were the top-seeded women’s pair but were eliminated in the second round by the Czech duo of Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova 2-6, 6-4, 10-5 in a match tiebreaker in the afternoon. Then, at night, Gauff and Taylor Fritz exited mixed doubles with a 7-6 (2), 3-6, 10-8 loss in another match tiebreaker to Gabby Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.
In Olympic tennis, first-to-10, win-by-two match tiebreakers are used in place of a traditional third set for all doubles matches.
On Tuesday, Gauff was defeated by Donna Vekic of Croatia in straight sets in the third round of singles. Gauff, who was seeded second in that event, got into an argument with the chair umpire over an officiating decision near the finish of that match.
Article continues after this advertisementAll in all, it was an abrupt close to the Olympics for someone who was a Team USA flag bearer during the opening ceremony on Friday and, just a few days ago, was talking about hoping to leave the City of Light with three medals. Instead, she ended up 0 for 3.
Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula of Team USA play Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic during their women’s doubles match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
“Obviously,” Gauff said, “I thought I had a good chance in all three events.”
This was Gauff’s debut at the Olympics; she made the U.S. tennis team for Tokyo at age 17 three years ago but was forced to drop out after testing positive for COVID-19 right before the flight to Japan.
Gauff arrived in France this time as one of the biggest stars in her, or any, sport.
She won her first Grand Slam singles championship at the U.S. Open last September, and she collected her first major doubles title at the French Open in June — although not with Pegula, who was out injured, but with Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.
Gauff also has reached a singles final at the French Open, losing the trophy to Iga Swiatek in 2022. That major tournament is played each year at Roland Garros, the same clay-court facility being used to host Paris Games tennis matches.
Muchova was the runner-up to Swiatek at the French Open last year and also made it to the semifinals at the U.S. Open before losing to Gauff in a match interrupted for 50 minutes by a climate protest.
Muchova returned to action in June after missing 10 months because of surgery on her right wrist.
Wednesday’s match was delayed because of rain right before Noskova served for the second set with the Czechs ahead 5-4. When play resumed, they took that set, then dominated the tiebreaker.
“Honestly, sometimes 10-point tiebreakers are a little unlucky,” Pegula said. “They played pretty much the perfect tiebreaker.”
The 19-year-old Noskova closed out the victory with a volley winner.
Her biggest achievement to date came at the Australian Open in January, when she beat Swiatek in the third round. That made Noskova the first teenager to beat a No. 1-ranked woman at Melbourne Park since 1999.
“I was just standing there, letting her play,” Muchova said with a laugh about her partner, “and that’s how we won.”
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