Coco Gauff slams officiating after stormy first-round win

Coco Gauff on Monday. Pic/AFP

American teenager Coco Gauff slammed US Open officiating after battling to a stormy first round victory over German veteran Laura Siegemund on Monday.

The 19-year-old American sixth seed - tipped by many as one of the favorites for the this year's title - was forced to dig deep before winning 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in 2hr 50min on the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Also Read: US Open: 2014 runner-up Kei Nishikori pulls out due to knee injury

But an ill-tempered clash was marked by angry confrontations by both players with chair umpire Marijana Veljovic. Gauff remonstrated with Veljovic at length during the third set, accusing the Serbian official of failing to properly enforce time violation rules against Siegemund.

"I felt like the rules were being bent," Gauff said. "That's why a lot of players get mad when these time violations are called because one ref is letting them go over, the other is more strict on the time.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever