Aryna Sabalenka lost her second Grand Slam final of the 2025 season to Coco Gauff at Roland Garros.
Sabalenka was beaten by Coco Gauff on Court Philippe-Chatrier, despite winning the first set of the match.
However, one of the main talking points came when Sabalenka made some controversial comments after the match.
This has divided opinion and now a former Grand Slam champion has given her verdict on what Sabalenka said.
Aryna Sabalenka slammed by Rennae Stubbs for her behaviour towards Coco Gauff
Sabalenka suggested that she lost the match to Gauff, rather than her opponent winning it, and also claimed Iga Swiatek would have beaten the 21-year-old if she had been in the final.
These comments made by Sabalenka were quickly responded to by Gauff, who unsurprisingly disagreed with the Roland Garros runner-up.
Sabalenka received a lot of backlash for these comments, including from former doubles world number one Rennae Stubbs.
When speaking on her podcast, Stubbs doubled down on her criticism and slammed Sabalenka, who has since released a new statement retracting some of her previous comments.
“I have not lost in the finals of a singles Grand Slam but I have lost in the finals of a doubles Grand Slam on that very court,” said Stubbs. “I have lost matches where I want to leave the court, I don’t want to say anything nice about my opponent. I was a terrible loser.
“But I can tell you I have never got on the mic, as much as I have hated my opponent or disliked the way I lost and said I played terrible and you are lucky to win, essentially. I could not believe those words came out of her mouth.
“You could tell immediately she started to cry the moment she got a mic and I was like my heart broke for her. The crowd were ready to put their arms around her and cheer her and give her a five minute standing ovation like they have done so many times over the years to so many great champions.
“And those words came out of her mouth and the crowd went dead silent and I was like no, no, no. Reel that back. But she didn’t. And then she went into press and doubled down on it. I was like this is so bad.
“I talked to a couple of players about this and all of them said I gave her a pass for what she said on the court because we have all been there.
“It took her 24 hours after that to write an apology essentially on Instagram but I’m like girlfriend, that was so bad. And there is no excuses for it, there is just none. And that’s coming from me, I have said some stuff in press, but you never take it away from your opponent.”
What is next for Aryna Sabalenka?
Sabalenka will now look to move past this criticism for her behaviour from the Roland Garros final, as she moves on to the grass court season.
The Belarusian is scheduled to play one tournament ahead of Wimbledon at the stacked WTA 500 event that also features Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Jasmine Paolini, Qinwen Zheng and Mirra Andreeva.
Grass is the only surface that Sabalenka is yet to win a title on, having lost her only two previous finals in Eastbourne (2018) and ‘s-Hertogenbosch (2022).
Sabalenka will then look to win her first Grand Slam title of the year at Wimbledon, where she has twice been a semi-finalist.
However, she was unable to compete at the grass court major last year after being forced to withdraw with a shoulder injury.
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