“I mean there’s been multiple times this year where that happened to me where I feel like I always have to be, you know, an advocate for myself on the court,” Gauff said. “And I feel like in tennis we should have a (review) system because, you know, these points are big deals. And yeah, usually afterwards they apologize. So it’s kind of frustrating, you know. Sorry doesn’t help you once a match is over.”

When the match ensued, Gauff had an opportunity to get it back on serve in the next game, getting to 0-40 on Vekic’s serve as the crowd began to boo the umpire and get a bit rowdy. But Vekic managed to settle down, reel in the break points and stretch out to a 5-2 lead. A rattled Gauff was then easily broken, allowing Vekic – who recently made the Wimbledon semifinals – to advance.

“I mean, it’s a very tricky situation,” Vekic said. “I personally thought the umpire made a good decision because the call came quite late, but I have to rewatch it. It’s tough to know exactly in the moment. But yeah, after that with the crowd, it was not so easy. I lost my concentration for a couple points, but I’m happy that I managed to come back in that game because it was an important game.”

Still, even Gauff didn’t blame the loss on one controversial call. The fact is, she seemed on her way to an easy first set win but couldn’t secure a second break and played a poor game at 5-3 while trying to serve it out. Then in the tiebreaker, Gauff made a poor choice to try a drop shot at 7-7 when she had control of the rally, pushing it into the net.