"Let's give athletes hell for being injured": Marketa Vondrousova 'disgusted' at Coco Gauff's ex-coach for critical take on US Open withdrawal

Marketa Vondrousova returned to the Quarter-Finals of the US Open in what was a landmark return run for the Czech athlete who has been dogged by injury. But her bad luck struck again.

Vondrousova who likely had to withdraw with a knee injury had to withdraw hours before she was due to take to the court to face off against Aryna Sabalenka. She felt the effect of the injury during her warm-up and had to decide against playing.

While Aryna Sabalenka for instance sent her well wishes and gave her support. Others were more scathing about her late decision to pull out. Namely Brad Gilbert who formerly coached Coco Gauff and Andre Agassi and gave what has now been dubbed a 'poor take' about injury withdrawals.

He dictated a new rule that should be introduced in place in an episode of Served. His gripe though was more players withdrawing then deciding to play again the following week.

In data compiled, there were at least 10 players who have withdrawn who now have other tournaments scheduled in the coming weeks. Ben Shelton for instance was set to play Davis Cup two weeks after retirement, Jack Draper was set to play the Chengdu Open and still is next week. Eva Lys albeit has a condition which means that her status is very much match by match is next playing in China.

He chimes that many athletes should be banned from their next tournament as some use it as a way to get out there and then when the going gets tough.

“I do get totally annoyed now about players pulling a rip cord in the middle of a match and then they play next week. It is a really weird thing that a guy is pulling a rip cord in the third or fourth round and then literally it wasn’t that bad that you could play next week, or you are playing the doubles the next day. There should be a rule against that if you pull out of match, you can’t play next week," Gilbert said.

But this did not go down too well with Vondrousova with the former Wimbledon champion reposting an article of the quotes on her Instagram story saying she was 'disgusted' with Gilbert for his take.

"Let's give athletes hell for being injured, I'm disgusted with Brad too," she wrote on her Instagram story in Czech.

Albeit this also contridicted what Gilbert said this past week when he called it a shame that Vondrousova had to retire injured albeit it seems he was making a general point about retirements and not hugely about the Vondrousova situation. Shelton for instance had a horror injury on court against Mannarino but seems to still be playing in the coming weeks.

"Such a bummer for Vondrousova who has battled so many injuries in her career, was back playing very good ball again, hopefully not a serious injury."