LONDOFollowing this month’s French Open final, it didn’t take long for Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenkato to reconcile.
Gauff hopes that everyone else will forget what the top-ranked Sabalenka stated after losing to the American at Roland-Garros, now that Wimbledon is ready to begin.
A day after dancing together in a TikTok video on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, the two tennis players were questioned further on Saturday regarding Sabalenka’s remarks immediately following the final, in which she claimed that her defeat was more the result of her own errors than Gauff’s play.
After receiving a lot of criticism from fans and commentators, particularly in the US, the Belarusian eventually wrote to Gauff to apologize and call her remarks disrespectful.
Gauff is working to put an end to the criticism.
Gauff, who faces Dayana Yastremska on Tuesday to begin her Wimbledon campaign, declared, “I am not the person who will incite hatred in the world.” People were going too far, in my opinion. Simply put, it was really offensive and said a lot of things that I didn’t like. I didn’t want to add to it.
Sabalenka, who will play Carson Branstine on Monday on No. 1 Court, expressed her optimism that the TikTok video demonstrates that they are getting along well.
The three-time major champion stated, “We are good, we are friends.” Right now, I’m hoping the American media will be forgiving.
She never intended to insult Gauff, Sabalenka reaffirmed.
“Emotions overtook me, and I was just really angry with myself,” she added. I simply went crazy.
Gauff admitted that she was first tempted to publicly retaliate against Sabalenka for claiming that the American won the match because she didn’t play exceptionally well, but rather because she made all of those mistakes from… easy balls.
Gauff added that she was a little taken aback by how long it took Sabalenka to apologize. However, the American quickly buried any resentment after that.
“I preach light and love,” Gauff declared. All I want is for us to live a good life, be Kumbaya, and be content here.
The top two women’s players getting along again thrilled other players as well.
Frances Tiafoe, ranked 12th in the Wimbeldon men’s bracket, expressed her happiness at the fact that they have moved on from the incident. Since they are the world’s finest players, that is the most important factor. You sort of need such relationships.
“But it wouldn’t be too bad if they were also back-and-forth,” the American continued, laughing. If they weren’t very fond of one another, that would be nice.
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https://apnews.com/hub/tennis is the AP tennis website.
