{"id":179892,"date":"2025-06-13T01:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T01:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/179892\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T01:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T01:58:10","slug":"wta-player-defends-aryna-sabalenkas-comments-about-coco-gauff-and-claims-she-was-just-emotional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/179892\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA player defends Aryna Sabalenka’s comments about Coco Gauff and claims she was just ’emotional’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aryna Sabalenka has been under fire recently for comments she made after the 2025 French Open final.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a three-set battle, Sabalenka was beaten by Coco Gauff<\/a> in the 2025 French Open final, 7-6, 2-6, 4-6.<\/p>\n

Making 70 unforced errors in the final, Sabalenka claimed the conditions were \u2018horrible\u2019<\/a> and that her mistakes had handed the title to her American rival.<\/p>\n

\"ArynaPhoto by Andy Cheung\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Doubling down in her post-match press conference, Sabalenka suggested Iga Swiatek would have beaten Gauff<\/a> in the final had the Pole won her semi-final match.<\/p>\n

Fans and players have widely criticised Sabalenka for her comments, although one WTA<\/a> star has now come out to defend the world number one for what she said in the aftermath of an \u2019emotional\u2019 defeat.<\/p>\n

Daria Saville says Aryna Sabalenka was \u2018really hurt\u2019 after Coco Gauff defeat <\/p>\n

Appearing on the Australian Open<\/a> TV YouTube channel, former world number 20 Daria Saville shared her thoughts on Sabalenka\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot about it on social media. A lot of opinions. Do you want to hear my opinion?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she was really hurt. I think she didn\u2019t have that much time to process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done that before when I\u2019m still really mad, and I\u2019m just like, I\u2019m going to do the press conference now. I\u2019ve never had a press conference after losing a Grand Slam final. I think she was emotional on court, she was emotional post-match, and she just spoke about how she was feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grand Slams have been criticised for not allowing players time to process their feelings after a loss, instead pushing them to speak right away.<\/p>\n

Following the Sabalenka\/Gauff controversy, former world number one Jimmy Connors suggested Slams give players an extra \u2018five minutes\u2019<\/a> before speaking to the media.<\/p>\n

Saville questioned whether Sabalenka<\/a> would have said what she did had she watched back the match.<\/p>\n

\"DariaPhoto by Franco Arland\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think she looked through someone else\u2019s lens, she was just talking from her own perspective, she was really hurt, and I don\u2019t know if her watching the match back would change her mind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Saville\u2019s husband and former Australian Open doubles finalist Luke Saville reflected on the match itself, explaining how Gauff made Sabalenka \u2018overplay\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe watched the highlights, we thought it was a pretty high level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very windy, obviously [Aryna] Sabalenka was playing pretty aggressively, as she normally does.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoco [Gauff]<\/a> is probably the best mover in the game, making a lot of balls, hustling, making Sabalenka play that extra ball, and maybe she was overplaying a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world number 129 agreed, praising Gauff for how she approaches matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is Coco\u2019s strength; she never beats herself. I\u2019ve actually never played against Coco, but just from watching, she makes people make those unforced errors,\u201d said Saville.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka after Roland Garros controversy?<\/p>\n

The ever-classy Gauff said she wants people to give Sabalenka \u2018some slack\u2019<\/a> as the world number one continues to receive backlash for her comments.<\/p>\n

There doesn\u2019t seem to be any bad blood between the pair, although the drama will certainly add another layer of excitement to their next WTA Tour encounter.<\/p>\n

Through 11 matches, Gauff holds a slight lead, 6-5, in the head-to-head over Sabalenka, following her win at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n\nMatch<\/strong><\/td>\nSurface<\/strong><\/td>\nWinner<\/strong><\/td>\nLoser<\/strong><\/td>\nScore<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2025 French Open \u2013 F<\/td>\nClay<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\n6-7, 6-2, 6-4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2025 Madrid Open \u2013 F<\/td>\nClay<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\n6-3, 7-6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2024 WTA Finals \u2013 SF<\/td>\nHard<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\n7-6, 6-3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2024 Wuhan \u2013 SF<\/td>\nHard<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\n1-6, 6-4, 6-4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2024 Australian Open \u2013 SF<\/td>\nHard<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\n7-6, 6-4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2023 US Open \u2013 F<\/td>\nHard<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\n2-6, 6-3, 6-2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2023 Indian Wells \u2013 QF<\/td>\nHard<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\n6-4, 6-0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2022 Toronto \u2013 3R<\/td>\nHard<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\n7-5, 4-6, 7-6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2021 Rome \u2013 3R<\/td>\nClay<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\n7-5, 6-3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2020 Ostrava \u2013 2R<\/td>\nHard<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\n1-6, 7-5, 7-6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2020 Lexington \u2013 2R<\/td>\nHard<\/td>\nCoco Gauff<\/td>\nAryna Sabalenka<\/td>\n7-6, 4-6, 6-4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff\u2019s head-to-head record<\/p>\n

The pair are, however, yet to play one another on the grass, as fans look ahead to a potential 12th Sabalenka\/Gauff clash at Wimbledon<\/a> next month.<\/p>\n

Entering the event as the top two seeds, there is a real chance we will see the American and Belarusian face off in a second consecutive Grand Slam final when tennis heads to the All England Club.<\/p>\n

Of the two, it\u2019s Sabalenka who has had more success on grass, reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals on her two previous visits to SW19, whereas Gauff has yet to reach the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Only time will tell whether we will see Sabalenka and Gauff contest the Wimbledon final in July, but it would certainly be worth tuning in for.<\/p>\n

The 2025 Wimbledon tournament is scheduled to begin on Monday, June 30, with the women\u2019s final taking place on Saturday, July 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka has been under fire recently for comments she made after the 2025 French Open final. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[35772,6740,73980,5066,79,1068,16,15,5069],"class_list":{"0":"post-179892","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-daria-saville","11":"tag-french-open","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114673582300209591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179892","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=179892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}