The scene felt all too familiar to Coco Gauff. A refereeing decision she knew was wrong. A chair umpire who wouldn’t listen. Tears streaming down her cheeks. And, most disappointing of all, a loss, this time at the Paris Olympics.

Even the venue was the same: Court Philippe Chatrier was where the reigning US Open champion was eliminated in the third round of the Summer Games by Croatia’s Donna Vekic 7-6 (7), 6-2 on Tuesday. It’s also the main stadium used annually for the French Open, where Gauff found herself in a nearly identical dispute over a call when she was defeated in the semifinals by eventual champion Iga Swiatek last month.

“This year it happened several times, I felt like I always had to stand up for myself on court,” Gauff said afterwards, again calling for video review to be used in tennis, as in many other professional sports.

“I felt like he was calling it before I hit it, and I don’t think the umpire disagreed,” she said. “I think he just didn’t think it affected my swing, which I did.”

Gauff is one of the biggest stars at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She is 20 years old and comes from Florida. She was the second seed for the Olympic Games in the singles and was the female flag bearer for the United States at the opening ceremony on Friday.

It was Vekic, however, who drew a lot of support from the stands early in the match, with chants of “Don-na! Don-na!” ringing out. When Vekic began her comeback from a 4-1 deficit, she responded to the applause by waving her arms above her head for more — and the crowd responded. In the next game, Gauff hit a backhand winner and raised her hand, wagging her fingers to ask those in the stands to support her — and they responded, eliciting an ironic smile from Vekic.

When the disputed decision took place two games from the end of the match, Gauff was already far behind.

She hit a serve, and Vekic’s return landed near the baseline. A linesman initially called Vekic’s shot out; Gauff did not keep the ball in play. Chair umpire Jaume Campistol ruled Vekic’s shot in play and awarded her the point, giving her a service break and a 4-2 lead.

Gauff walked over to the referee to talk to him, after which the game was stopped for several minutes.

“I never dispute these calls. But he was calling it before I hit the ball,” Gauff told Campistol. “It’s not even a perception; it’s the rules.”

During the meeting, tears were visible on the Delray Beach tennis star’s face.

“This happens to me all the time,” Gauff shouted loudly. “Hopefully this sport will be fair someday.”

She won her first two singles matches easily, losing just five games in total. But her first Olympic singles tournament — she’s still in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles — ended with a performance that was hardly her best on the hottest day of the Summer Games so far, with temperatures soaring above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius).

“These points are big things. Usually they apologize afterwards. So it’s a little frustrating. The ‘Sorry’ doesn’t help you when the game is over,” Gauff said. “I can’t say I would have won the game if I had won that point.”

Even before the problems surrounding the umpire’s decision, Gauff had been unable to get off to a good start against Vekic, who was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon this month.

The American led 4-1 and was a point away from a 5-1 lead and serving for the opening set. But she failed to seal the deal, then squandered a pair of set points at 6-4 in the ensuing tiebreaker. Vekic raced to the end of that set, and held her ground in the second.

Coco Gauff advances to the second round of the women’s singles after beating Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-0 in 57 minutes on Sunday.

An example of Vekic’s superiority this afternoon: she won 33 games, compared to only nine for Gauff.

“I’m not going to sit here and say one point affected the outcome today,” Gauff acknowledged, “because I was already on the losing side.”

Still, the most memorable moment in the match was that second-set debate. Gauff even alluded to that Swiatek loss during a conversation with Campistol and a supervisor who was on court for the conversation on Tuesday.

“It happens to me all the time here at the French Open. Every time,” Gauff said, holding a tennis ball in one hand and her racket in the other as she pleaded her case. “This is the fourth, fifth time it’s happened this year.”

Vekic didn’t bother, staying on her side of the court and playing with her strings.

“It’s a very difficult situation. I personally thought the referee made a good decision because it came quite late,” Vekic said when asked afterwards what had happened. “But I’ll have to look at it again. It’s difficult to know exactly at that moment.”

When Gauff gave up and walked back onto the field to restart play, the fans booed loudly, furious with the referee.

The first point of the next match went to Gauff and the crowd cheered her wildly.

But about 10 minutes later the game was over.

Tennis star Coco Gauff started playing tennis at the age of six and has made herself a star

Gauff was scheduled to return to the court later Tuesday with her U.S. teammate Taylor Fritz for a first-round mixed doubles match. She is also competing in the women’s doubles with Jessica Pegula at this year’s Olympics.

Over the weekend, Gauff spoke of her ambition to leave with three medals — one from each of her events in Paris. That’s not going to happen now.

“I want,” Gauff said Tuesday, “to come home with something.”

Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula won their opening match in the first round of the doubles against Australia’s Daria Gavrilova and Ellen Perez.