This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks for reading today. Here’s your morning medal count as of 9:00 a.m. ET.
— United States: 20 (3 gold, 8 silver, 9 bronze)
— France: 16 (5 gold, 8 silver, 3 bronze)
— Japan: 12 (6 gold, 2 silver, 4 bronze)
— China: 12 (5 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze)
— Korea: 10 (5 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze)
Coco Gauff deserves better
The story of Coco Gauff’s loss in straight sets (7-6, 6-2) to Donna Vekić won’t be about the loss.
Instead, it’ll be about the argument between Gauff and yet another chair umpire after an erroneous call completely derailed what felt like might be a classic.
READ MORE: Fans rallied behind a teary-eyed Coco Gauff after a bad call ruined her match
With the second set at 2-3 and Vekić playing for a breakpoint, Gauff served the ball into Vekić’s forehand. Gauff prepared to hit a return but the line judge called the ball out as she swung. She seemed to pull up after the call and sent the ball into the net.
You be the judge pic.twitter.com/nmPqYbRsGk
— Owen (@kostekcanu) July 30, 2024
The umpire correctly overruled the line judge and ruled the ball in. But the judge also ruled that Gauff lost the point, which gave Vekić the break she needed to push the match to 4-2.
That’s what caused Gauff’s teary-eyed reaction. She felt cheated and it’s hard to blame her.
A call was made and Gauff reacted to it. The call was wrong, yes, but it disrupted play. The obvious solution was to replay the point, but instead, we got a heated argument between Gauff and the chair umpire that looked completely embarrassing for the sport.
This isn’t the first time this has happened to Gauff. Just over a month ago at the French Open essentially the same thing happened in Gauff’s match against Iga Swiatek. Back then, Gauff argued that tennis needs a replay system to prevent things like this from happening. She’s arguing it again here and, honestly, she may be right. For these errors to continue to mar the sport repeatedly isn’t the greatest look.
You know what also isn’t the greatest look? Gauff’s reaction here. Don’t get me wrong. Understandably, she’s upset about what keeps happening to her. Anyone would be.
There’s nothing wrong with being an emotional player. We’ve seen plenty come through the sport and thrive. John McEnroe is the obvious one that comes to mind. Serena Williams got fiery at times on the court, too. But they were able to use that emotion and that fire to thrive.
Today, it seemed, Gauff’s emotions were a bit of a hindrance. That’s Ok. Gauff is young. She’ll learn and get better from this.
Let’s hope Roland Garros learns, too, and doesn’t continuously allow things to go this far.
Katie Ledecky is still better than everyone else
Here’s our daily word from Michelle Martinelli, who has boots on the ground in Paris for the Games. Today’s subject is the unmatched brilliance of Katie Ledecky. The longer she goes, the better she is.
NANTERRE, France — Bonjour, les gagnants! On Day 4 of swimming at the Paris Olympics, Katie Ledecky is doing Katie Ledecky things, like crushing her 1,500-meter freestyle competition in her typically dominant fashion.
The longer the race, the better Ledecky is, and the 1,500 is her best event — and one that was FINALLY added to the Olympic lineup at the 2021 Tokyo Games. (It took decades, but organizers finally corrected the absurdly antiquated and sexist thinking that limited the longest Olympic women’s event to the 800 when men could swim the 1,500.)
The world record holder, Ledecky was the first women’s 1,500 Olympic champion in Tokyo, setting the Olympic record by default. And after her prelims swim Tuesday, she certainly looks like she’ll have no trouble defending her Olympic gold.
Ledecky qualified first while fellow American Katie Grimes didn’t make the top-8 final, set for Wednesday afternoon Eastern time.
On a personal note, as a kid watching Olympic swimming, I remember being confused about why women couldn’t swim the 1,500 when 10-year-old me could. So to finally see the event in Tokyo on TV and then in person Tuesday in Paris was really something special.
This was my view of Ledecky cruising to the finish in prelims:
The 10-year-old inside me is crying.
— Michelle Martinelli 🇫🇷
Don’t forget: The MLB trade deadline is today
Olympic buzz has overtaken just about everything. But this might be a pretty important day for your favorite baseball team.
We’ve already seen a bit of movement so far. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is a Yankee. Randy Arozarena is a Mariner. There’s plenty more to come with so many teams thinking they have a legitimate shot at winning down the stretch of the season. So many contending teams still have holes to fill.
If you need to play a little catchup, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.
— The basics of the MLB trade deadline
— Nine players who could be dealt at the trade deadline
— Three teams that should sell and two teams that should buy at the deadline
Quick hits: Incredible surfing photos … Meet Stephen Nedoroscik
— Our Mary Clarke put together this incredible gallery of surfing photos from day 3 of the Olympics
— Stephen Nedoroscik inspired so many memes after coming through in the clutch for U.S. Gymnastics on Monday. Meg Hall has more.
— Charles Curtis has more on theories that shallow pools are impacting the Olympic swimmers.
— James McCann somehow remained in the game for the Orioles after taking a fastball to the head. Tyler Netunno has more.
—Prince Grimes says Anthony Richardson’s return to the Colts could disrupt the NFL
— Frederick Richard’s parents are so delightful. Here’s Cory Woodroof with more.
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading. We appreciate you! Enjoy the Games. We out. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
