{"id":175420,"date":"2025-06-11T10:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T10:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/175420\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T10:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T10:35:09","slug":"jimmy-connors-suggests-what-grand-slams-need-to-change-after-aryna-sabalenkas-comments-towards-coco-gauff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/175420\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Connors suggests what Grand Slams need to change after Aryna Sabalenka’s comments towards Coco Gauff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aryna Sabalenka has been in the centre of a storm following her comments towards Coco Gauff after the French Open final.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sabalenka made a bold statement about Gauff<\/a> in her post-match speech after she was beaten in the Roland Garros<\/a> final.<\/p>\n

The world number one continued this in her press conference, where Sabalenka made reference to Iga Swiatek and Gauff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the match, Sabalenka received heavy criticism<\/a> from many former players, with eight-time Grand Slam champion Jimmy Connors<\/a> now having his say.<\/p>\n

\"ArynaPhoto by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

This is the second Grand Slam final that the Belarusian has lost this year, with Madison Keys beating Sabalenka at the Australian Open<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka had also lost to Gauff<\/a> in the US Open<\/a> final in 2023, but this appeared to be the most disappointed she had ever been after losing a major final.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Someone who knows what it is like to lose a Grand Slam final is the aforementioned Connors, who had finished as runner-up at seven major tournaments.<\/p>\n

When speaking on his podcast, Connors argued that people should cut Sabalenka <\/a>some slack and suggested that players should be given a bit longer to gather their thoughts before making their speech on-court.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a tough match, whether it\u2019s the finals or the French or Wimbledon or whatever, everyone wants to hear your thoughts right away,\u201d said Connors. \u201cMaybe it would be better to give you five minutes and let the players take a breath.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they want to hear it right away, they want the scoop. And then they are critical of it. That\u2019s why it\u2019s always been a crawl in my whatever. These guys think they know what they are talking about when they have not done it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can sit there and say I have saw this and I have watched so much tennis I know what\u2019s in your mind. You don\u2019t know what\u2019s in my mind! You have no clue. And by the way not every player has the same thing going through their mind, everybody is an individual. So let the players take a breath sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

What has Coco Gauff said in response to Aryna Sabalenka?<\/p>\n

Gauff admitted she thought Sabalenka\u2019s comments were unfair<\/a> when they were first addressed to her.<\/p>\n

However, after receiving backlash, Sabalenka released a follow-up statement<\/a> to clarify her previous remarks.<\/p>\n

It appears that there is no big fallout between the players, with Gauff <\/a>giving Sabalenka the \u2018benefit of the doubt\u2019 when asked about the situation in an interview on Good Morning America.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little bit surprised about the comments and everything but I\u2019m gonna give her the benefit of the doubt,\u201d said Gauff. \u201cI\u2019m sure it was an emotional day, emotional match. I know she was probably a bit emotional after that match and it was a tough loss.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Gauff and Sabalenka could go head-to-head once again at their next tournament on the grass, but only if both players reach the final of the Berlin Open.<\/p>\n

They will then head to Wimbledon<\/a>, where Sabalenka will be the top seed over Gauff<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka has been in the centre of a storm following her comments towards Coco Gauff after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[35772,6740,5066,72556,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-175420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","9":"tag-coco-gauff","10":"tag-french-open","11":"tag-jimmy-connors","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114664290703796036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}