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In a recent media availability at the Cincinnati Open, Aryna Sabalenka spoke about her comments about her French Open final match with Coco Gauff. The June statement following her defeat to the American tennis star dominated sports headlines coming out of the French Open, as she seemingly downplayed Gauff's victory.
While addressing the media, she spoke about her post-match comment, saying, “Some people don’t really understand the intensity of everything, that when you lose the final of one of the biggest tournaments and you go to media straightaway, you’re so frustrated, so pissed at yourself, you’re trying to figure out what just happened. You don’t think clearly, and you make a comment and people forget completely about who you are the rest of the time.”
She spoke about her thoughts after the press conference, saying, “I had to sit back and reflect on everything and apologise and make sure people understand my point that I was just overemotional. I was completely wrong. It took a little while to explain myself a little better. But now I think people understand me even better. It was a tough lesson, but it helped me in many ways.”
Following her June French Open loss to Coco Gauff, Sablanka was asked a quesiton about what occured in the match that ultimatley led to her loss.
“I think it was more windy. Also I think I was over emotional,” she said. “Today I didn’t handle myself quite well mentally. Basically that’s it. I was just making unforced errors. I don’t know. I have to check the statistics. I think she won the match not because she played incredible. Just because I made all of those mistakes, if you look from the outside, from kind of easy balls.”
She added, “If Iga had beaten me the other day, I think she’d come out today and get the win,” Sabalenka said.
After the outcry, Sabalenka apologized for her comments. She wrote a letter to Gauff apologizing and showing her respect for her as well as her victory.
“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.”
The two tennis stars shared a TikTok of themselves dancing shortly after the comments, hinting at a reconciliation.
