Olympic Tennis—Paris, France
Gauff Ousted at Olympics; Fritz, Zverev Advance to Round 3
Reigning US Open winner Coco Gauff was handed a tough defeat at the Olympic Games on Tuesday, losing to Donna Vekic from Croatia 7-6(2), 6-2.
Down a break point in the second set at 2-3, Gauff engaged in a lengthy argument with the chair umpire after not being able to challenge a call. Losing her cool, Gauff quickly lost the next three games and the match.
Vekic, who recently made the semifinals of Wimbledon, will next face No. 7 seed Maria Sakkari or No. 12 seed Marta Kostyuk.
Elsewhere, No. 8 seed Danielle Collins, No. 6 seed Qinwen Zheng and three-time former Major winner Angelique Kerber all advanced to the quarterfinals.
Kerber, 36, will be retiring after the Olympic Games.
Zverev, Fritz Reach Round of 16
French Open finalist Alexander Zverev powered into the round of 16 at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, dismissing Tomas Machac 6-3, 7-5.
Needing one hour and 36 minutes to advance, Zverev hit 20 winners and won 71 percent of his first serve points.
The German will next face Alexei Popyrin for a place in the quarterfinals. Popyrin ousted three-time Major winner Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 7-5 earlier in the day.
Other winners on Tuesday included No. 7 seed Taylor Fritz, No. 9 seed Tommy Paul, No. 11 seed Lorenzo Musetti, No. 13 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and Frenchman Corentin Moutet.
Still to come on Tuesday, Rafael Nadal will team up in doubles action with Carlos Alcaraz to take on Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof and Andy Murray will take the court for perhaps the final time with doubles partner Dan Evans to face Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen from Belgium.
Korda Shines in D.C.
No. 4 seed Sebastian Korda picked up a much-needed victory on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., defeating Cristian Garin 6-3, 6-2 to reach the round of 16.
Needing one hour and 11 minutes to advance, Korda struck seven aces, won 83 percent of his first serve points and broke serve on three occasions.
The American, who is currently ranked No. 22 in the world, will next face Thanasi Kokkinakis or Aleksander Vukic for a place in the quarterfinals.
Other winners on Tuesday saw No. 12 seed Miomir Kecmanovic, Radu Albot, Aleksandar Kovacevic, Mitchell Krueger, Juncheng Shang and Luca Van Assche all advance.
On the women’s side, No. 6 seed Victoria Azarenka, Marie Bouzkova, Kamilla Rakhimova and Taylor Townsend all progressed.
Townsend dismissed No. 9 seed Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 6-2.
As always, check back for daily updates on TennisConnected for all your previews and reviews from this week on Tour.
Stream all the action live this week from the Olympic Tennis event right here.
