Aryna Sabalenka 'got what she deserved' as Coco Gauff gets honest about apology

Aryna Sabalenka said she "got what she deserved" after receiving backlash for comments about Coco Gauff. The world Nos. 1 and 2 could meet in the Wimbledon final weeks after Gauff came out on top in the championship match at Roland Garros.

In defeat, Sabalenka said: "I think she won the match not because she played incredible; just because I made all of those mistakes from, like, if you look from the outside, kind of like from easy balls." The pair have since made up and practised together at SW19, even filming some TikTok videos.

After copping a lot of heat in recent weeks, the three-time Major winner said: "We've always been really good with Coco. Honestly, as I said in the statement and I messaged to her, I didn't really want to offend her. I was just completely, like, upset with myself, and emotions got over me. I just completely lost it.

"I wanted to say it in person to her, but I wasn't sure if she's going to come to Berlin, so I had to message her to apologise and make sure she understood it. I didn't want to offend.

"Of course, she got my respect. She knew it. She knows it. I'm happy that she was, like, 'Yeah, it's all good, don't worry'. Yeah, as you saw the video, I was talking, we are good, we are friends. I hope the U.S. media can be easy on me right now.

"I get what I deserve, I believe. It was tough time for me. The lesson is learned. Definitely not going to happen again."

World No.2 Gauff said it was "tempting" to hit back when Sabalenka took a while to reach out. But the American "isn't someone to hold a grudge", and she suggested some of the criticism went too far.

The American added: "I'm not someone to hold a grudge. I was talking to my circle about it. I was like, if she apologises, like, not even publicly, it was just more so privately, I will be fine, and we'll move on.

"She did, and she did again when I saw her before we practised. Yeah, it was just water under a bridge. I know Aryna. I felt like before that, we got along pretty well anyways before all that happened. It wasn't very hard to accept that apology.

"At first it was a little tempting [to hit back] just because the apology did come a little bit later. I thought it was going to come pretty quick.

"But after that, I mean, I didn't want to fuel more hate. I'm not the person that will fuel, like, 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."

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