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The French Open drama seems to be water under the bridge for Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka.
Sabalenka received backlash over her poor unsportsmanlike comments after Gauff won the French Open this month. However, now the two have come back together on the court to do what most Gen Z's love to do in their spare time: dance to trending music on TikTok.
“TikTok dances always had a way of bringing people together,” Sabalenka captioned a video she shared of she and Gauff dancing to Bob Sinclair and Cutee B’s “Rock This Party.”
“This healed something in me,” one fan wrote.
“Omg the world is healing,” another fan replied.
Even the official Instagram account for Wimbledon commented, “Iconic [fire emoji]”
Gauff wrote three crying emojis in the comment section.
The tennis star's reunion follows Sabalenka telling reporters that the reason Gauff won the French Open wasn't because she played incredible,” but rather that she “made all of those mistakes.”
“I think it was more windy,” she added. “Also, I think I was overemotional. Today, I didn’t handle myself quite well mentally. Basically, that’s it. I was just making unforced errors.”
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After the backlash from social media, Sabalenka apologized to Gauff
“That was just completely unprofessional of me,” Sabalenka said. “I let my emotions get the better of me. I absolutely regret what I said back then. You know, we all make mistakes. I’m just a human being who’s still learning in life. I think we all have those days when we lose control. But what I also want to say is that I wrote to Coco afterward — not immediately, but recently.”
“I never intended to attack her,” Sabalanka added. “I was super emotional and not very smart at that press conference. I’m not necessarily grateful for what I did. It took me a while to go back and think about it, to approach it with open eyes, and to understand. I realized a lot about myself. Why did I lose so many finals?”
In the end, Sabalenka who has three Grand Slam titles: the 2023 and 2024 Australian Open and the 2024 US Open, shared that she learned a lot from her reaction to the French Open loss and does not plan to ever behave that way again.
“I kept getting so emotional,” Sabalenka added. “So I learned a lot. Above all, one thing: I’m the one who always treats my opponents with great respect, whether I win or lose. Without that respect, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So it was a tough but very valuable lesson for me.”
The apology was accepted by Gauff who admitted that she fought temptation in responding back.
“It was very weird,” Gauff admitted per Tennis 365. “I’m transparent. 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 quick.
“There’s obviously temptation. I wouldn’t be lying, but I don’t know, I just want us to be kumbaya, live happily, hakuna matata, and be happy here.
However, she decided against it: “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 more 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 two will be seeing one another again at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships, which officially kicks off on Monday (June 30).
