Coco Gauff's coach Brad Gilbert looks forward to Novak Djokovic vs Carlos Alcaraz Paris Olympics blockbuster; suggests sweeping changes for LA 2028
Coco Gauff's coach Brad Gilbert is looking forward to Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz's men's singles gold medal match at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, August 4. Gilbert has also suggested certain changes he would like to see incorporated at the 2028 edition of the prestigious Games in Los Angeles.
Djokovic and Alcaraz, the top two seeds in the men's singles draw, have both been in great form in Paris. However, it's Alcaraz who is going into the final as the overwhelming favorite, having won the French Open and Wimbledon Championships this year. In the Wimbledon final, the Spaniard surprisingly made short work of Djokovic, with the Serb uncharacteristically off-color.
Meanwhile, despite the fact that Djokovic reached the Australian Open semifinals and the Wimbledon final, it has still been an underwhelming season for the Serb. The 24-time Major winner has so far failed to win a single title this year, and is set to square off against arguably the most dominant force in men's singles tennis right now in Alcaraz.
Ahead of the blockbuster encounter, Coco Gauff's coach Brad Gilbert took to X (formerly Twitter) and spoke about it.
"Djoker vs Escape from Alcaraz tomorrow for the @Olympics gold medal," Gilbert wrote on Saturday, August 3.
The notable coach, who also oversaw the development of Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray, suggested some changes for the 2028 LA Olympics as well. This included doubles medal matches featuring proper third sets instead of the super tiebreak. The 62-year-old also proposed a best-of-five-sets men's singles gold medal match.
"A few changes I would make for 28 LA Olympics, all medal matches in doubles play the 3rd out no match TB, the men’s gold medal match absolutely should be B05," Gilbert added.
Coco Gauff's coach Brad Gilbert urged incidental replays to be introduced following World No. 2's heated exchange with umpire at Paris Olympics
Gauff endured a forgettable Olympics debut in Paris this year. The WTA World No. 2 in singles featured in three categories; women's singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles. However, across all three categories, she suffered relatively early exits.
The reigning US Open champion's singles loss at the hands of eventual silver medalist Donna Vekic in the third round was marred by a tense exchange between Gauff and the chair umpire. The exchange stemmed from Gauff hitting a return at the net after a shot from Vekic was called long by one of the line umpires.
However, the chair umpire ended up awarding the point to Vekic after overruling the line umpire's call. This infuriated Gauff, who eventually turned tearful. Gilbert later urged incidental replays to be introduced in light of the controversy.
"I have said since we introduced Hawkeye replay calls like 20 years ago, That we should absolutely have incidental replays, umpires should have a tv monitor to look at replay, same with tournament referee if they come to court, must see replay quickly," Gilbert wrote.
Coco Gauff's next outing is set to be at the 2024 National Bank Open in Toronto, where she is the top seed following World No. 1 Iga Swiatek's withdrawal.