Coco Gauff disagrees with Wimbledon star after incident went 'too far' and 'late apology'

Coco Gauff has seemingly disagreed with Madison Keys over Aryna Sabalenka's controversial French Open final comments, admitting the fallout went "too far." Sabalenka was heavily criticised after attributing the three-set defeat at Roland Garros to her own mistakes rather than Gauff's performance.

Since then, the Belarusian has apologised both privately and publicly for describing the match as the worst final she had played. Judging by social media clips posted from Wimbledon on Friday, the two players seemed to have put those hostilities firmly behind them. Sabalenka was contrite in accepting the negative response her comments prompted. Speaking ahead of Wimbledon, she said: "I've always been really good with Coco. Honestly, I didn't really want to offend her. I was just completely upset with myself, and emotions got over me. I just completely lost it. I did what I did. I get what I deserve, I believe. It was a tough time for me. The lesson is learned.

"Honestly, I'm kind of glad what happened to me at Paris, because I was able to learn a lot. I was able to sit back and be open to myself, not just to ignore some things. I think I realised a lot of things about myself in those last stages of the tournament. I really hope it will never happen again."

Meanwhile, Keys, who beat Sabalenka at this year's Australian Open final, claimed that her compatriot would not have cared about Sabalenka's post-match comments. She said: "Things just kind of come out and you don't necessarily mean them fully. Then there is other times where you feel very disappointed in yourself because you didn't play to the level that you expect yourself to.

"I think sometimes those are kind of hard moments to navigate, and especially if there is a microphone in front of you. I think sometimes we say things that we wish we could take back. Again, I don't think Coco cares."

However, Gauff's pre-Wimbledon comments suggest she was indeed irked by Sabalenka's words as she admitted the apology came later than it should have and that she contemplated hitting back. She said: "It was very weird. I'm transparent. At first, it was a little tempting [to respond] just because the apology did come a little bit later.

"I thought it [the apology] was going to come pretty quick. There's obviously temptation. I wouldn't be lying, but I don't know, I just want us to be kumbaya, live happily, hakuna matata, and be happy here.

"I didn't want to fuel more hate. I'm not the person that will fuel 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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Gauff added: "It was just water under the bridge. I know Aryna. I felt like before that we got along pretty well anyway before all that happened. It wasn't very hard to accept that apology."

Sabalenka will face Canadian Carson Branstine in the first round at SW19, while Gauff has been drawn against Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska. If they get that far, the pair will meet in the final as the first and second seeds.