Coco Gauff doesn't think it's right for people to question why Aryna Sabalenka elected to play at the 2024 Miami Open.
The Belarusian player is enduring some tough days. News about her former partner dying surfaced a few days ago, though not many people knew that she was separated from him.
At the time of the news breaking, Konstant Koltsov, who passed away, was described as her partner. When speculation about the death being a potential suicide emerged later, things got even more complicated.
Sabalenka didn't speak on the matter initially, but she showed up in Miami for practice. It was later confirmed that she opted to play at the WTA 1000 tournament despite the events.
She then released a statement confirming that she and her former boyfriend were no longer together at the time of his passing, but it was obviously a very difficult situation to deal with.
Her colleague Coco Gauff was asked about that during the pre-tournament press conference, and she defended Sabalenka's right to process the situation however she wanted to.
She also shared that she reached out via text to express her condolences while declining to comment on the situation further.
"I don't have any thoughts on it. I offered her my condolences through a text message and I don't think people should dig into whether or why she's playing. I think it's totally her process and I feel like we should just leave it at that."
She is not the first player who was asked about it since Sabalenka will not be doing media for this event for obvious reasons. Much like Paula Badosa before her, Gauff didn't really want to comment on the situation because it's very fluid, and many things around the death are still unclear.
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