French Open 2025: Surly Sabalenka refuses to give Coco Gauff credit, blames herself for loss

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.

The champion, unsurprisingly, disagreed.

Sabalenka: Today sometimes it felt like she was hitting the ball from the frame. Somehow magically the ball lands in the court and (you) are on the backfoot. It felt like a joke, somebody above was laughing, like, ‘Let’s see if you can handle this.’Sabalenka: If Iga (Swiatek) would win (over) me the other day, she would go out today and get the win. Sabalenka: I was making unforced errors.

I think she won the match not because she played incredible, (but) just because I made all of those mistakes from easy balls.

Sabalenka: I already have a flight booked to Mykonos and alcohol, sugar. I’m just trying to be very polite now, but there is no other word that could describe what just happened today on the court. Tequila, gummy bears, and I don’t know, swimming, being like the tourist for a couple of days.

Gauff disagrees

Gauff: I don’t agree with that… Last time I played - no shade to Iga or anything - I won in straight sets. 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.