Coco Gauff Draws Serena Williams Parallel After Fiery China Open Exchange: “You’re Disrespecting Me”

Coco Gauff Draws Serena Williams Parallel After Fiery China Open Exchange: “You’re Disrespecting Me”

“I’m too old for these mind games!” fired Belinda Bencic at Coco Gauff at the China Open. This fiery exchange became the talking point of the week. More than the result, the heated interaction between the American and the Swiss pro caught everyone’s attention. Now a former WTA icon has shared her take on how the verbal battle eventually led to Gauff’s triumph against Bencic while making a stunning comparison with 23-time slam queen Serena Williams.

During an episode of her podcast, dated September 30, ex-Australian player Rennae Stubbs revealed honest thoughts on the Gauff-Bencic verbal clash during the R16. Per Stubbs, it was Belinda who made things worse for herself when she could have simply focused on the match and snatched the victory. “Belinda Bencic decided to complain about Coco’s team and how they were clapping and being like, you know, saying stuff before she was about to serve and stuff.”

Stubbs explained, “Look, I can tell you one thing. If you’re winning a match and you’re in a winning position, which Bencic was at that point, up a set and in the second set, you just got to go and play. Like you do not want to add fuel to somebody’s fire, particularly someone like Coco, to like get her in the mindset to like fight and battle, which she did in that second set.” Bencic was cruising after winning the first set 6-4. In the second set, however, at 2-3, she lost her focus to the war of words.

Comparing Gauff to former icon Serena Williams, Stubbs continued, “I just think like it’s just crazy that these players (Bencic) like lose their mind like that, because it’s like what I used to say when people would play against Serena. It’s like don’t poke the bear.” A similar instance, but featuring Williams, took place a decade ago during the 2015 French Open. In the third round against Victoria Azarenka, Williams was struggling in the first set. But she managed to come back thanks to Azarenka’s gestures, which fueled her urge to win. After taking the first set 6-3, Azarenka hit a shot on the last point of the second set that landed close to the baseline. The chair umpire Kader Nouni called it “out” and asked her to replay the point.