The French Open

Women's Tennis World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is fast earning the unpleasant tag of being a 'sore loser' after the controversial comments she made as to why American Coco Gauff clinched the 2025 French Open title at her expense.

The Belarusian was favourite to take home the Suzanne-Lenglen cup and it had seemed that way after she edged the young American, 6(5)-7, to pocket the first set. However, Gauff fought back in the second set, 6-3, to force a third set, and continued to dominate Sabalenka 6-2, to clinch the second major title of her career.

The World No. 2 adds the 2025 French Open title to her US Open title which she won in 2023, interestingly, also at the expense of Sabalenka. Back then she became the youngest American champion at 19, since Serena Williams did it in 1999.

By winning the French Open, Gauff once again made history as the first woman in the history of the sport to rally from a set down to win her first two major titles.

Sabalenka admitted that she had played the worst tennis in the last couple of months, and that conditions were terrible and the American youngster handled the rough conditions better than she did.

But then, Sabalenka made a turn-around when she added that 'she won the match not because she played incredible, just because I made all of those mistakes'.

A post shared by instagram

While it may be true that Gauff was able to take advantage of Sabalenka's 70 unforced errors, it cannot be denied that the newly-crowned French Open women's singles champion did not make life easy for her by putting up a solid defence, dominating the lob game and making 16 successful lob shots, while Sabalenka only managed one.

This despite earlier claiming that not handling herself well mentally was what led to her committing the numerous mistakes. The tennis community was swift to react and immediately condemned the Belarusian while several netizens took to social media to express their disdain over Sabalenka's words.

Sabalenka's words sparked debates on the true essence of competition, about sportsmanship, humility, and how there is a fine line between being honest and being disrespectful in professional tennis.

Coco Gauff keeps it cool

Gauff kept her composure when informed of Sabalenka's words and simply replied, 'I mean, I don't agree with that'.

Sabalenka also said that three-time defending French Open champion Iga Swiatek, whom she dismissed in the semifinal, would have had a better chance of winning against Gauff, to which the American replied that, 'honestly speaking to you guys who I wanted to play, it was Iga because I felt Aryna was playing so good, and she was'.

Gauff added that Swiatek would have been a tough opponent as well, 'But, you know, it played out how it played out. Yeah, that's why I'm here today."

Not the first controversy for Sabalenka this year

This is not the first time this year that Sabalenka became embroiled in a controversy. Last month during the Madrid Open, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine was left frustrated in her quarter-finals match against Sabalenka when the latter decided to stop playing due to the rain after missing her first serve.

The Belarusian had told the umpire that the rain made it impossible for her to continue, but the umpire, Jennifer Zhang, replied that they can still continue to play as the rain was not that bad yet.

Sabalenka returned to the baseline but did not hit the ball after throwing it up, claiming that the rain was coming down into her eyes. She then sat down in her chair and put her racquet away.

Kostyuk approached Zhang and questioned why Sabalenka would get a first serve upon resumption of the match when she had stopped playing by herself, the umpire had not decided yet to stop the game.

In the end, Sabalenka got her way and went on to win the match, leaving Kostyuk fuming and lamenting the Belarusian's move.

Writer's pick
French Open