Brad Gilbert continues call for electronic line judging in revisiting Coco Gauff case amid Andrey Rublev default drama

Coco Gauff’s coach Brad Gilbert has had his say on Andrey Rublev’s default drama at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Rublev was disqualified from the tournament after using an expletive in Russian in the face of one of the line judges – despite his pleas that he spoke in English.

Gilbert said while he doesn’t condone Rublev’s actions, he continued to call for electronic line calling in tennis, especially after seeing his player on the wrong end of a call recently.

For the record I don’t condone what Rubles did to (the) linesperson, even if (he) didn’t swear at (the line judge), that becomes judgement call for umpire that’s 50-50 default, my beef absolutely ridiculous to not have electronic court in Dubai same issue with women’s week before,” Gilbert said on X.

Gauff was involved in a clash with the chair umpire during her third round match in the same tournament, after being on the receiving end of a wrong call and denied a request to speak to a supervisor.

Umpire Pierre Bacchi initially determined that Gauff’s opponent Karolina Pliskova’s return had been hindered by his call of out, but after a clip proving that he made the call after Pliskova hit her shot surfaced, Gilbert said: “This is exactly why you should have incidental challenges.”