WIMBLEDON, England — It did not take lengthy for Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka to patch up their relationship after this month’s French Open closing.
Now as Wimbledon is about to begin, Gauff is hoping everybody else can even neglect what the top-ranked Sabalenka mentioned within the wake of her loss to the American at Roland-Garros.
A day after dancing collectively on Wimbledon’s Centre Court docket in a TikTok video, the 2 tennis gamers confronted extra questions Saturday in regards to the aftermath of Sabalenka’s feedback proper after the ultimate, when she mentioned her loss had extra to do along with her personal errors than Gauff’s efficiency.
The Belarusian later wrote to apologize to Gauff and mentioned her feedback have been “unprofessional,” however not earlier than she confronted some main backlash from followers and pundits — particularly in the US.
Gauff is attempting to ensure the criticism stops.
“I am not the individual that will gas hate on the planet,” mentioned Gauff, who opens her Wimbledon marketing campaign in opposition to Dayana Yastremska on Tuesday. “I feel folks have been taking it too far. … It was simply actually concentrating on and saying lots of issues that I felt weren’t good. I did not need to gas that extra.”
Sabalenka, who faces Carson Branstine on No. 1 Court docket on Monday, mentioned she hopes the TikTok video exhibits that every one is effectively between the 2.
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“We’re good, we’re buddies,” the three-time main winner mentioned. “I hope the U.S. media could be straightforward on me proper now.”
Sabalenka reiterated that she by no means meant to offend Gauff.
“I used to be simply fully upset with myself, and feelings obtained over me,” she mentioned. “I simply fully misplaced it.”
Gauff did acknowledge that she was initially tempted to hit again publicly at Sabalenka, who mentioned the American “gained the match not as a result of she performed unimaginable, simply because I made all of these errors from … straightforward balls.”
However after Sabalenka reached out to apologize, Gauff was fast to bury any grudge.
“I preach love, I preach gentle,” Gauff mentioned. “I simply need us to be kumbaya, reside fortunately, hakuna matata, and be pleased right here.”
Different gamers have been additionally happy to see the highest two ladies’s gamers getting alongside once more.
“I am pleased to see that they turned the web page about it,” mentioned Frances Tiafoe, who’s seeded twelfth within the Wimbledon males’s bracket. “That is the most important factor, as a result of they’re the very best gamers on the planet. So these relationships you sort of want.”
Then the American added with amusing: “But in addition it would not be too dangerous in the event that they have been additionally back-and-forth. That’d sort of be cool in the event that they sort of did not like one another.”
