Coco Gauff was embroiled in the controversy surrounding the Women's Doubles final at the Madrid Open with her and Jessica Pegula as well as winners, Victoria Azarenka and Beatriz Haddad-Maia being denied a speech.
Gauff was asked like her doubles partner, Jessica Pegula about it and said that they have to take the criticism for not doing it with the organizers remaining fairly silent.
"Yeah, for me, like, I'm going to say it wasn't about the speech, about what was said. I mean, obviously, we lost, so it probably didn't mean as much to Vika and Bea, who won. It wasn't so much about me wanting to speak and speak to the crowd," said Gauff.
"I guess I do think the player should address the crowd, people who came and supported the event.
"But I think it was just more about the principle behind it, that in future cases, I don't know if someone, maybe me or somebody else criticizes the organization or tournament, maybe deeper than what was said, I don't know, maybe racism, homophobia, something like that. You can't just cut, no speech, no nothing. You have to take those criticisms."
"You look at other sporting events, a lot of people call out their organizations. Nothing wrong with that. I think the professional thing to do is keep things as normal. In tennis, we are probably one of the few sports where we give a speech."
She continued and said it wasn't in her opinion mainly concerning her so was a victim of circumstance more than anything.
"I was told it was a situation that didn't involve me that happened. I'm not going to go into that situation. People probably know what it was. But, yeah, that's what I was told. I said that situation for me was not deep enough to not have a trophy ceremony."