Was Wimbledon promoting Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka's olive branch an unforced error?
The world No. 1 spoke about how 'terribly' she'd played, bemoaned the conditions, and gave her opponent precious little credit. Sabalenka even implied that Gauff would have lost the final had it been Iga Świątek on the other side of the net.
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Sabalenka has since issued an apology, both in an interview with Eurosport and directly to Gauff. Things went up a notch at Wimbledon on Friday, though, when the pair practiced together and did a dance for TikTok on court, a Sabalenka hallmark. Gauff posted on TikTok: 'The olive branch was extended and accepted! We're good, so you guys should be too.'
Then Wimbledon itself endorsed that message, and things got weird.
Caoimhe O'Neill and Charlie Eccleshare, both on site at the All England Club for Wimbledon, discuss what it says about tennis, rivalry and social media.
You heard them ❤️#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/JkuppdWU1b
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 27, 2025
Caoimhe O'Neill: The year is 2025 and TikTok dancing is a fluent language for many. Sabalenka and Gauff choosing to dance together on Centre Court ahead of their practice session on Friday was a modern way of telling the world that what happened at Roland Garros is behind them.
I'm all for women athletes using social media to express their personalities, write their own narratives and, in turn, grow their audiences and, with that, endorsement deals. For too long, women in sport have been overlooked and underfunded. Social media gives them a space to present themselves in a way they want to beyond press conferences and headlines.
My bugbear with the dance is that we all want feuds in sport and this feels like it has stolen one from us that was building up nicely.
Charlie Eccleshare: It's so self-defeating. Needle in sport is compelling. Which isn't to say that we should confect it, but when there are so few tennis rivalries with edge at the moment, it seems odd to be dancing to the players' tune, almost literally, in this kind of way.
Maybe this is overthinking it. From Wimbledon's perspective, this was a newsworthy moment, so they wanted to amplify it. Engagement is engagement, after all, though official accounts are generally less forthcoming about more controversial moments. Still, this remains part of a wider trend, where tournament-sanctioned highlights packages often edit out the more controversial moments, sending out a message that everyone should behave as impeccably as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner generally do.
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O'Neill: I don't see Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz posting a dance to social media anytime soon. Maybe the beauty of the dance itself is that women athletes are sometimes more willing to choose friendship over feud. More willing to laugh it off. But should they have to? This taps into a wider societal issue whereby women are expected to be nice. Women being confrontational or unhappy can be treated as much more of a problem than when men act in the same way.
Both players were asked about the dance and what it meant for their relationship and rivalry during their pre-tournament news conferences at Wimbledon. Gauff admitted that she thought Sabalenka's apology would have arrived quicker than it did, and acknowledged that she had been tempted to post something addressing the comments before the world No. 1 said sorry.
But Gauff also said they are both tired of talking about what happened and hoped the video would show people they are 'on good terms.'
'We are good, we are friends. I hope the U.S. media can be easy on me right now,' Sabalenka said on Saturday. There is something that feels off about two athletes having to dance in order to prove to the world everything is OK. Should we not just listen to them instead?
Another consideration is that this was posted to stop the noise online.
Eccleshare: The bigger issue feels like players needing some room to vent and to be human after a sickening defeat. The volume of social media abuse individuals receive after making a misstep like Sabalenka did will only add to the pressure they feel about never saying the wrong thing. Sabalenka said in a news conference on Saturday that: 'I did what I did. I got what I deserved,' which felt like a sad lesson to have learned given how badly she was abused in the aftermath of the Roland Garros final.
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She really didn't deserve that, and while doing a dance is something Sabalenka likes doing to bond with other players — she did one with Świątek towards the end of last year as well — one hopes that players know it's OK if they want to be honest in a difficult moment.
Frances Tiafoe, the American world No. 12, acknowledged this on Saturday when he praised Sabalenka and Gauff for their move, but added: 'It wouldn't be too bad if they were also back and forth (at one another). That would be kind of cool if they kind of didn't like each other.'
Just look at a quote like this:
'To lose against someone like that, it's very disappointing, because you feel like he was mentally out of it already. Just gets the lucky shot at the end, and off you go…
'Confidence? Are you kidding me? I mean, please. I remember losing junior matches. Just being down 5-2 in the third, and they all just start slapping shots. It all goes in for some reason.'
So said Roger Federer to explain how he had just lost the 2011 U.S. Open semifinal to Novak Djokovic, having held two match points. Pretty graceless, right? The sort of thing that nowadays would probably have led to so much condemnation online that Federer would have had to issue an apology on social media and stage manage some sort of reconciliation. A handshake, perhaps, or a practice session together.
Because in 2025, it's seemingly no longer OK to have a bit of needle in a rivalry, or to vent after a painful defeat.
O'Neill: Does this completely end the rivalry? No, it just takes the edge off it, which is perhaps what's strange about a tournament engaging in that process. Why defuse something that tennis fans want to be exciting? If Sabalenka and Gauff meet in the final on July 12, do you think they will be dancing then?
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