Serena Williams' former coach Rennae Stubbs thinks Belinda Bencic "poked the bear" with comments directed at Coco Gauff and only "fueled" the American to come back and win their Beijing match.
In case you missed it, Bencic took the opening set of her Beijing round-of-16 clash, before she started having issues with Gauff and her team. At one point, the 15th-seeded Swiss stopped play and openly complained about the American tennis star and her team, accusing them of playing "mind games" and pulling off some dirty tactics.
Gauff didn't appreciate it a bit and she made sure to let Bencic know it while the Swiss was voicing her complaints to the chair umpire. After the tense moment between the two players, the second-seeded American mounted a 4-6 7-6 (4) 6-2 comeback.
Tense moment between Belinda Bencic and Coco Gauff in Beijing 🤯pic.twitter.com/Gztx0wwdWN
— FirstSportz Tennis (@FS_Tennis1) September 30, 2025
Stubbs: Gauff was like, 'Now you are disrespecting me…'
Stubbs, who won six Grand Slam titles across women's and mixed doubles before accompanying Williams for her 2022 US Open farewell, suggests Bencic revealing her frustration only helped Gauff.
"So I just think like, it's just crazy that these players 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. Like when you're going to give a player something to sort of focus on, like, well, if I'm going to like, rather than thinking about like I'm sure Coco was in her own head at that point, and Oh my God, am I going to lose? And well, then she's like, 'No, no, now you're disrespecting me and my team. I'm going to focus,'" Stubbs said on her podcast.
Meanwhile, when asked about Bencic's comments in her post-match presser, Gauff said she was "not a confrontational player" but also admitted that she wasn't happy with how the Swiss attacked her and her team.
