Aryna Sabalenka in tears after the loss in the final to Coco Gauff (Image via AP /Thibault Camus)
World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, devastated at losing the French Open final, refused to give credit to the champion Coco Gauff in her post-match press conference, looking at it as a final she lost rather than one the world No.2 won. Because she played incredible, (but) just because I made all of those mistakes from easy balls, i think she won the match not. Gauff : I don’t agree with that… Last time I played – no shade to Iga or anything – I won in straight sets.
The champion, unsurprisingly, disagreed. Sabalenka : I was making unforced errors. I don’t think that’s a fair thing to say. The way Aryna was playing the last few weeks, she was the favourite to win. I think she was the best person that I could have played in the final. I got the hardest matchup if you go on stats alone. Obviously, Iga being a champion here, it was going to be a tough match either way. But, yeah, I think regardless of who I played, I had a good shot to win, and I definitely had that belief. You know how it played out.