Coco Gauff on time controversy in US Open first round win over ...

Coco Gauff says that she tried to be ‘respectful’ as she confronted the umpire during a bad-tempered US Open first-round win over Laura Siegemund.

The American came back from a set down to advance 3-6 6-2 6-4 at Flushing Meadows but the match was not without controversy following a series of disputes over time between serves.

Siegemund seemed prepared to push the limits of how long she would take on her own serve, frequently allowing the shot clock to tick down to zero.

The German simultaneously inferred that Gauff was too quick on her serve and constantly sought to hold up her opponent.

Things came to a head in the deciding set when Siegemund again held up Gauff’s serve, causing the 19-year-old to speak out to umpire, Marijana Veljović.

“She went over the clock about four times, you’ve given her a time violation once. How is this fair?” she can he heard saying on the broadcast.

She added: “I’m going at normal speed. I go at medium pace speed”.

Gauff was able to maintain her composure and demonstrated her increasing maturity to eventually see out the win and spoke about the incident in her post-match press conference.

“I was really patient the whole match. She was going over the time since the first set. I never said anything. I would look at the umpire, and she didn't do anything.

She added: “On her serve, even though you're supposed to be on the time, I was being nice. My team told me I should have spoke up earlier. But then it got to the point where she was doing it a lot on my serve.

“My issue with that was the ref was calling the score like a couple seconds after the point was finished, so it made it look like I was serving abnormally fast.”

Siegemund, 35, looked potentially on course to cause an early upset after taking the first set on Arthur Ashe having broken Gauff twice.

The hometown favourite bounced back however after a lengthy opening game of the second set lasting 26 minutes in which Gauff finally converted the eighth break point to seize the advantage.

She soon broke again before serving out the set.

The teenager then took a 3-0 lead in the third but wasn’t awarded a point at 40-40 when Siegemund said she wasn’t ready for the serve, prompting Gauff to speak to Veljović.

“I really don't like confrontation all that much,” said Gauff afterwards. “I was thinking about it the whole match. I wasn't sure if I was in the right or not until it happened multiple times. Then I was like, Okay, I know I'm in the right.

“I think it just reached a point where I was just really frustrated. For me, I try my best not to let my emotions to take over myself. I wanted to express my frustration, but also being censored. I didn't want any bombs to fly or anything. I was trying to best communicate how I was feeling to the referee.”

There was more drama when Gauff was serving for the game at 4-1 as Siegemund was handed a point penalty after walking off to get her towel.

This now caused the Germen to hit out at Veljović:

“She’s serving extremely fast, almost unreasonably fast, and I’m always here, and one time I go to the towel”, she complained.

The penalty saw Gauff go 5-1 up but Siegemund rallied to pull it back to 5-4 before Gauff was able to serve out the set and seal a place in round two.

“I didn't want to come off as a complainer,” Gauff reiterated. “Sometimes being in the public image, you think about all these actions that doesn't have to do with tennis, like talking with the ref, throwing the racquet, banging the racquet. It's stuff that I think about, honestly.

She added: “It is something that I think about, my maturity level, because I know it's something that people look at a lot. I know you do one wrong move, people are going to call you all types of names and tear you down.

“Today I think it was important to show you can do all this, still stick to your ground, and people are going to respect you. I think as long as you approach a person with respect, then everything should be fine.”

Gauff also revealed she received a presidential seal of approval for her behaviour from the watching Obamas who congratulated her after the match.

“I've met Mrs. Obama before. They told me it was just her initially. Then Mr. Obama was there in the room, too.

“I think I'm going to never forget that moment for the rest of my life. I went from being really upset after a win to being really happy. So I'm glad I got to meet them. They gave me some good advice, too.

“They just told me how I handle myself in these situations. She said it's good to speak up for myself. I think she was happy that I spoke up for myself today.”

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