Ex-Serena Williams' coach gets honest on Gauff's defeat 'to eliminate' Swiatek

11/13/2024 09:40 AM

Rennae Stubbs, former coach of Serena Williams, has expressed on the defeat suffered by Coco Gauff against Barbora Krejcikova in the round robin of the WTA Finals 2024; a defeat that effectively eliminated Iga Swiatek from the tournament.

On social media, many users have attacked (unfairly, I stress) the young American, criticizing her because - according to their distorted vision - Coco would have intentionally lost that match in order to eliminate the Polish player. Tiresome criticisms, in my opinion, also because - in any case - everyone makes the moves they want, in view of victory.

In one of the latest episodes of the Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, Serena's former coach pointed out how there is no way Coco lost that match on purpose, analyzing:

"For anyone to suggest that Coco played Krejcikova to eliminate Iga Swiatek, that's nonsense. There's no way you can lose a match going to the semifinals, playing supposedly the best hard court player all year, other than Sabalenka. So, stop the nonsense. That's not what happened. She got beat and she was pissed off that she lost. Coco is thinking that she wants to win again, she wants to have more money in her pocket. Because if she had gone undefeated, she would have earned even more. If you go undefeated, you get an extra bonus. Somebody wrote that Coco flopped in the match against Krejcikova so Iga couldn't get to the semifinals. It doesn't work that way. First of all, what does Coco say? That I'll lose to Krejcikova and then she'll have a chance to play again with Krejcikova or that she has already beaten Iga and now if she loses to Krejcikova then I can play Sabalenka in the semifinals. Absolutely not, that's not what she's thinking. You would say that playing Qinwen at the time was easier than playing Sabalenka. Why would you want to play Sabalenka?" explained Stubbs.

The Australian, in her podcast, talked with Caitlin Thompson about the purple dress worn by the winner of the WTA Finals. Thompson said about how she loves the finalists wearing purple, noting that Coco's New Balance uniform was the best she's ever seen her wear, but also noted:

"She has an amazing body, so it's not that anything looks bad on her, but this for me was just outstanding. Her stuff is often good, but a lot of times they put her in extremely tight and very revealing outfits. I also appreciated the sass of Qinwen on the podium. I don't know if you saw it, but she was saying she was on the cover of Vogue China right now!"

Coco's Kingdom 👑 Cheers to the 2024 WTA Finals Champion @CocoGauff ! #WTAFinalsRiyadhpic.twitter.com/J27ErlfTlI

— wta (@WTA) November 9, 2024