“I think she won the match not because she played incredible, but because I made all those mistakes,” said Aryna Sabalenka of Coco Gauff, right after their French Open final clash. Her controversial reaction made headlines for weeks as the World No.1 was questioned for her stance on the 21-year-old. While the Belarusian confessed that her 70 unforced errors made it look like she played “the worst tennis” in months, she wasn’t able to admit that Gauff played better than her to capture the Suzanne Lenglen trophy. Fortunately, both players made peace with each other ahead of Wimbledon more than a month ago, leaving the bitter experience behind. But this month, a similar incident occurred, with four-time slam queen Naomi Osaka attracting backlash after losing to Canadian prodigy Victoria Mboko. And some of the notable figures are not happy, at all, with the Japanese star.
For the uninitiated, Osaka and Mboko recently played each other in the Canadian Open final. The 18-year-old emerged victorious after she bested Osaka despite trailing in the opening set. With a score line of 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, Mboko became the first Canadian woman to clinch the WTA 1000 title in Montreal after compatriot Bianca Andreescu who won in 2019. However, the match between Osaka and Mboko caught more attention over a controversial off-court gesture from Osaka. During the presentation ceremony, Osaka didn’t congratulate Mboko. Instead, she said, “I don’t really wanna take up too much time. I’ll just say thank you to everyone. Thank you to my team, the ball kids, organizers, & volunteers. I hope you guys had a good night.”
Now, former WTA icon Rennae Stubbs has come out to criticize Osaka’s post-match remarks. Especially toward Mboko who said she “always looked up to her [Osaka] when I was really little.” In a recent podcast episode, Stubbs said, “This was arguably worse than Sabalenka when Sabalenka went hard at the French Open with Coco about essentially how lucky she was to win the match.” She continued, “Because she [Osaka] had about 12 minutes after that match to gather herself to think the best thing at least I can do is congratulate her and get off there.”
Image Credits: Imago
Stubbs’ co-host Caitlin Thompson couldn’t agree more. She said, “I was more upset about this than I was about Sabalenka.” Interestingly, she also made some crucial remarks on Osaka’s personality. Thompson questioned the former World No.1’s intentions as a mental health advocate. Especially considering how much she’s spoken, previously, about “needing space and needing grace and needing a lot of understanding,”
According to Thompson, “that kind of only works if they extend it to other people. And I have to say what I’ve seen from Naomi Osaka is that it doesn’t seem to extend beyond her.”
Coming back to her gesture toward Mboko, it appears the Japanese star did realize it later. And she was quick to make amendments while expressing kind words for the 18-year-old.
Naomi Osaka apologizes to Victoria Mboko
Naomi Osaka‘s 2025 season has been miserable to say the least. At the beginning of the year, she missed out on the ASB Classic title after an abdominal injury forced her out in the final. Then it forced her out of the Australian Open in the third round. Later, her inconsistency across most of the events became very much evident. She’s not been able to make a lot of deep runs so far.
The defeat against Mboko was perhaps the final nail in the coffin with her post-match snub the unintended consequence. However, Osaka was quick to correct course in the aftermath.
Hours after the final, the four-time slam winner took to Instagram Threads to clear the air. While issuing an apology to the Canadian teenager, she wrote, “Thanks Montreal it’s been a really great run. I also want to say sorry and congratulations to Victoria. You played a great match and have an amazing career ahead! I realize I didn’t congratulate you on the court.”
Later, during a media interaction, she reiterated her sentiments toward Mboko saying, “I don’t know why my emotions flipped so quickly, but I’m really happy to have played the final.” Commending the teenager, she added, “I think Victoria played really well and I completely forgot to congratulate her on the court, but, yeah she did really amazing.”
What are your thoughts on Osaka’s post-match behavior during the Canadian Open final? Was it justified? Let us know in the comments below.
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