Coco Gauff's coach Brad Gilbert lambasted players for withdrawing late from the 2024 Paris Olympics. He also called for imposing penalties on such players.
Many tennis players skipped the 2024 Paris Olympics, including World No. 1 Jannik Sinner (tonsillitis), Holger Rune (wrist injury), Elena Rybakina (acute bronchitis), Marketa Vondrousova (hand injury), Hubert Hurkacz (knee injury), Alex de Minaur (hip injury). Many players withdrew after the draw was made which forced predominantly doubles players to enter the singles draw to take their place.
Rune was slated to play Djokovic but after the former's withdrawal, Matthew Ebden took his place and was handed an embarrassing 0-6, 1-6 defeat. To Ebden's credit, he has not played a singles match in two years. Following Cameron Norrie's withdrawal, Petros Tsitsipas was drawn to face Tallon Griekspoor, losing 2-6, 3-6. Tsitsipas has played only six matches in his entire ATP career.
Trending
Frustrated with this, Andy Roddick said that doubles players being made to play singles was 'dumb'.
"The Olympics singles alternate situation is ridiculous. Players that don’t even/cant play singles at highest level getting the call is dumb," Roddick said.
Coco Gauff's coach Brad Gilbert replied, saying that there should be some alternate singles players on site. He also suggested penalties for players who withdraw late.
"Ridiculous to not have at least a couple of alternates on site, also way to many late pullouts after the draw made, should face some sort of penalty (sic)" Gilbert said.
Gilbert also suggested that players should not enter a tournament during the Olympic week. For the unversed, Lorenzo Musetti played the final against Francisco Cerundolo at the Croatia Open on July 27 and played the first round match against Gael Monfils on July 28, just 19 hours later.
"Should be very hard rule players entered in @Olympics should not be allowed to play event starting monday, when opening ceremonies begin on a Friday," he said.
Coco Gauff into the second round at the Paris Olympics 2024
Coco Gauff is off to a flying start at the 2024 Paris Olympics, winning her singles and doubles matches in the first round. Gauff defeated Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-0 to reach the second round.
She raced to a 3-0 start and after exchanging a couple of breaks of serve, the American won the set 6-3. Gauff made easy work of Tomljanovic in the second set to reach the next round, where she will meet Argentinian Maria Lourdes Carle.
In doubles, she paired with long-time partner Jessica Pegula and they defeated Australians Daria Saville and Ellen Perez. In the first set at 3-3, they won three straight games to clinch the set 6-3. Pegula and Gauff broke the Australians' serve thrice en route to winning the second set 6-1 to confirm a place in the next round.
