Aryna Sabalenka made 70 unforced errors on the tennis court in her 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 loss in the final of the French Open against Coco Gauff on a windy Saturday afternoon. While a lot of them were equal parts sloppy, ill-timed, and costly, none were arguably as flagrant as the 71st error she made that day, the one she made in the post-match press conference.
Reviewing her uncharacteristically messy performance in one of the biggest matches of her career, an understandably dejected Sabalenka places the onus of the loss squarely on her shoulders and, in the minds of many, discredits Gauff: “I think she won the match not because she played incredible, just because I made all of those mistakes.”
She went on to insinuate, unprompted, that four-time Iga Swiatek, who Sabalenka defeated in the semi-final two days prior, would herself have likely beaten Gauff on the day, saying, “If Iga had beaten me the other day, I think she’d come out today and get the win."
Analysing the fallout of Aryna Sabalenka's comments
Regardless of what you think of the substance of those claims, neither are statements a competent PR team would have advised. While she has since made multiple attempts to walk back her heat-of-the-moment blunder, the comments have turned into a controversy that has reached beyond the fairly contained media sphere that the sport is confined to, particularly in stories that are born outside the US.
Among those weighing in have been prominent former players to ESPN radio hosts to, oddly, Real Housewives of New York City.
Putting aside the unnecessary jab from a reality TV star, it’s easy to condemn Sabalenka's remarks from an objective lens. They were objectively unsportsmanlike and a bad look for a player of her stature and experience. Now that we’ve got the boring finger wagging out of the way, let’s get into the reality; this is a drama right in the sports sweet spot. Tennis needs characters.
Unlike team sports that rely on massive brands that chug steadily growing year after year, tennis requires its stars to be walking-talking franchises of their own. Not even the brightest stars can shine forever, and when they inevitably fade, the game demands not just new talents but new headline-makers to keep the sport relevant.
This can often come at odds with tennis’ at times puritan-like sensibilities, a lingering residual of the sport's upper-class origins. This often creates a unique internal tug-of-war when the sport finds a firebrand personality at its summit, with examples dating as far back as Ilie Nastase in the 1970s and John McEnroe in the 1980s, and as recently as Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev, both still active and creating headlines today.
It is admittedly fairly rare for female players to find themselves in the media hurricane in this way. This is likely not by accident; societal standards for female athletes are often more stringent, and as such, high-profile stars are normally water-tight when it comes to their PR efforts.
Look no further than the immense vitriol towards outspoken, swaggering athletes such as sprinter Sha’carri Richardson, footballer Megan Rapinoe, and basketball player Angel Reese in recent years, criticism that quickly can pick up a not-so-subtle misogynistic subtext.
As the dominant world no.1 and in many ways, the current face of the women’s game, Sabalenka now finds herself with a constant target on her back, not just among her fellow competitors, but with a media that is has to be proven merciless when a woman in her position has the nerve to put a foot wrong.
There might be something to the fact that Sabalenka’s salty comments in some ways generated more attention from outside the immediate tennis community than the multiple domestic violence allegations against current ATP No. 3 Alexander Zverev that surfaced in the past several years.
Maybe that has more to do with the cult-of-personality around Gauff than anything else, but it does reinforce the idea that the female sports stars of the day walk on much thinner ice than their male counterparts.
Sabalenka’s remarks were clumsy. They were also the remarks of someone who had just played two weeks of tennis under the highest degree of scrutiny. We’ve seen many times how that particular title can weigh incredibly heavily.
One only needs to remember the immense pressure Serena Williams often found herself wrestling with on-court, or the emotional, exhausted press conferences former world No. 1s Naomi Osaka and Iga Swiatek have given in recent years during tough stretches of form.
Despite the widespread outrage on her behalf, Gauff herself has already acknowledged this factor in an interview with Good Morning America, graciously conceding the “benefit of the doubt” to Sabalenka, given the heightened circumstances of the occasion. This measured response isn’t surprising from those who have followed her career so far.
Much to Gauff’s credit, she has already proven herself not only a champion on the court but seemingly a remarkably well-adjusted person, considering she has been the darling of American tennis since she was 15 years old, a responsibility in itself that could drive a lesser person mad.
She also has no real reason to care about Sabalenka’s assessment of the match; she’s a two-time major champion, the legitimate world No. 2, and not once but twice she has gone into a major final against her as an underdog and snatched a career-defining prize from under her nose.
If anything, Sabalenka’s comments should be music to Gauff’s ears; she is firmly in the Belarusian’s head, and that could massively play to her advantage if they are to meet again in a similar spot.
The added attention the press conference has generated has set the stage for two huge potential clashes at the remaining major tournaments this year, as Sabalenka and Gauff currently sit as two of the three betting favourites at both Wimbledon in July and the US Open in September.
While there will be massive buzz around potential meetings between men’s top two, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, after their own French Open final classic last weekend, those two share a cuddly kinship that doesn’t quite catch the outside eye that this story now has.
Sabalenka’s comments might’ve cost her some goodwill, but she has thrust herself into what now very well may be the biggest storyline in tennis heading into the sport's two most high-profile tournaments. That’s not only a win for herself and Coco Gauff, who both stand in a position to reach a new level of sports stardom as a result, but it’s ultimately a massive win for women’s tennis at large.
The pundits and hosts (and Real Housewives) will carry the interest for now, but come Wimbledon, the two best players in the world will let the rackets do the talking once again, hopefully, in front of more eyes than ever before.
And to be fair to Sabalenka, she did walk back some of her initial comments on her Instagram page, saying, "Yesterday was a tough one. Coco handled the conditions much better than I did and fully deserved the win. She was the better player yesterday, and I want to give her the credit she earned."