Ahead of Wimbledon, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff showed that they had put any differences aside when they performed a TikTok dance together last week.
After Gauff defeated Sabalenka at Roland Garros earlier this month to win the French Open, Sabalenka made some controversial comments as she stated that she believed Gauff won not because she played great, but because Sabalenka did not perform well in the poor conditions and was overly emotional. Sabalenka went on to say she thought that Iga Swiatek would have defeated Gauff had she beaten Sabalenka in the semifinal.
Sabalenka received lots of backlash for her comments, and Gauff disagreed, pointing out that she had defeated Swiatek recently in straight sets. Sabalenka went on to release a statement and acknowledged that Gauff earned her victory.
Sabalenka additionally messaged Gauff privately to apologize, and said she learned her lesson from her comments.
"We've always been really good with Coco," Sabalenka said over the weekend. "Honestly, as I said in my statement and in my message to her, I didn't want to offend her. I was just completely upset with myself and emotions got over me and I just completely lost it. ... I messaged her to apologize and make sure she understood that I didn't mean to offend her. And of course, she has my respect, she knew it, she knows it. I'm happy that she was like, 'All good, don't worry.' And yeah, as you saw in the video, we were good, we were friends. So, I hope the U.S. media can be easy on me right now."
"I did what I did and I got what I deserved, I believe. It was a tough time for me. ... The lesson is learned and definitely not going to happen again."
On Gauff's end, she said it was not hard to accept Sabalenka's apology and that she understood where Sabalenka was coming from with some of her comments after the French Open.
"I understood what she was trying to say," Gauff said. "It was a terrible conditioned day. I don't think I was playing well either, so I understood where she was coming from. Some of the stuff she said in the presser I was a bit more surprised about. I'm not someone to hold a grudge, and when I was talking to my circle about it, I was like 'If she apologizes, I will be fine and we'll move on.'
"She did, and she did again when I saw her before our practice," Gauff continued. "It was water under a bridge. I know Aryna, and I felt like before that we got along pretty well anyway. It wasn't very hard to accept that apology. ... That [Tiktok] was to show people we are on good terms. ... I thought it would be a good idea for that so people could see it and move on because I think we're both tired of talking about it."
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Coco Gauff Had Classy Response to Aryna Sabalenka's Apology for French Open Comments.
