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 also can overlook what the top-ranked Sabalenka stated 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 stated her loss had extra to do together with her personal errors than Gauff’s efficiency.
The Belarusian later wrote to apologize to Gauff and stated her feedback had been “unprofessional,” however not earlier than she confronted some main backlash from followers and pundits — particularly in the US.
Gauff is making an attempt to ensure the criticism stops.
“I am not the individual that will gasoline hate on the planet,” stated Gauff, who opens her Wimbledon marketing campaign towards Dayana Yastremska on Tuesday. “I believe folks had been taking it too far. … It was simply actually concentrating on and saying a variety of issues that I felt weren’t good. I did not wish to gasoline that extra.”
Sabalenka, who faces Carson Branstine on No. 1 Court docket on Monday, stated she hopes the TikTok video reveals that every one is properly between the 2.
“We’re good, we’re associates,” the three-time main winner stated. “I hope the U.S. media might be simple 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 stated. “I simply fully misplaced it.”
Gauff did acknowledge that she was initially tempted to hit again publicly at Sabalenka, who stated the American “received the match not as a result of she performed unimaginable; simply because I made all of these errors from … simple balls.”
However after Sabalenka reached out to apologize, she was fast to bury any grudge.
“I preach love, I preach mild,” Gauff stated. “I simply need us to be kumbaya, dwell fortunately, hakuna matata, and be joyful right here.”
Different gamers had been additionally happy to see the highest two ladies’s gamers getting alongside once more.
“I am joyful to see that they turned the web page about it,” stated Frances Tiafoe, who’s seeded twelfth within the Wimbledon males’s bracket. “That is the most important factor, as a result of they’re one of the best gamers on the planet. So these relationships you type of want.”
Then the American added with fun: “But additionally it would not be too dangerous in the event that they had been additionally back-and-forth. That’d type of be cool in the event that they type of did not like one another.”