Coco Gauff has broken silence on Aryana Sabalenka’s “unprofessional” comments after her French Open victory.
According to Tennis World, ahead of the next major title, Wimbledon, Gauff revealed that she initially felt tempted to respond to Belarusian “too far” comments but decided to remain silent as she did not want to “fuel more hate.”
The 27-year-old's comments overshadowed Gauff’s comeback win, as all of the attention was diverted towards her. However, Sabalenka apologised to her publicly and personally for the comments she made when she was “emotional and upset.”
It seems that both of the players are once again on good terms as they both dance together in a TikTok video at Wimbledon’s Centre Court.
Three-time Grand Slam champion who faced backlash for her comments said, “We are good, we are friends. I hope the U.S. media can be easy on me right now,” adding, “I was just completely upset with myself, and emotions got over me. I just completely lost it.”
The American tennis professional acknowledged that although in the beginning she thought about responding back to Sabalenka, she decided to stay silent, as she did not want to “fuel hate.”
She told the presser at Wimbledon, “At first it was a little tempting just because the apology did come a little bit later. I thought it was going to come pretty quickly. I just want us to be kumbaya, live happily, hakuna matata, and be happy here.”
"I didn’t want to fuel more hate. I’m not the person that will fuel hate in the world. I think people were taking it too far. It wasn’t even about holding someone accountable. It was just really like targeting and saying a lot of things that I felt like were not nice. I didn’t want to fuel that more," the 21-year-old added.
Furthermore, Sabalenka will begin her Wimbledon bid against Carson Branstine on Monday, while Gauff will face Dayana Yastremska in her first round on July 1.
