Coco Gauff admits Wimbledon stars ‘cheat’ and thinks private chat was overheard

Wimbledon star Coco Gauff has admitted that she avoids practicing with particular tennis pros as they tend to cheat. The 20-year-old American, who enjoyed a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Caroline Dolehide at SW19 on Monday, told a recent press conference how some like to “call the lines a little bit too much” during practice sessions.

Gauff is set to face Romanian Anca Todoni in the next round of Wimbledon, and will look to continue to sharpen her skills going into the game. But there are certain players who she will refuse to warm-up with on account of their on-court antics.

When asked: “Have you ever been cheated by another player?”, Gauff chuckled: “I feel like you might have heard a conversation me and another player had. No, yeah, I mean, I’m not going to say who, but we had a conversation about how some players on tour do like to call the lines a little bit too much in practice. So we were having like a laugh out of that.”

Further revealing that there are numerous players she strays away from, the player admitted: “But, yeah, there are some girls, I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, that will do it. For me, I don’t really take any offence. If we’re in a real match, what’s the point?

“But a lot of times it’s probably girls who maybe were like cheaters in juniors and they just have the habit. Yeah, but most of the time I try to practice with people who don’t do that just to save frustration. I’m not going to question the girl. I’m not going to be like, Hey, that was kind of in. I’ll be like whatever, just move on.”

It comes as fellow American Sloane Stephens admitted that she thought she accidentally cheated in practice with a fellow athlete who she admires. The 31-year-old said she thought that her opponent double-faulted so she called the serve – despite admitting that she will “never call any balls out”.

She added: “I’ll play balls that are this far out. I’m, like, whatever, right? And I can’t see. Legit, can’t see. She thought I cheated her in the practice, but I didn’t know this happened in the practice. So I was, like, ‘Oh, yeah, second serve out, double fault’, whatever. Apparently, she looked back at her coach in disgust, whatever. I don’t know, I didn’t see it.”

When Stephens revealed that her mother later told her that she saw “chalk fly up” during the incident, she added: “I was, like, that’s why she was so mad at me. I didn’t understand. Maybe she was having a bad day. Like I said to them, ‘I think she was having a bad day’. No, she legit thought I cheated her. That didn’t happen.

“I definitely, like, spoke to her already and was, like, ‘I wasn’t trying to cheat you. Like, it’s just not that serious to me’. I’m, like, ‘I’m really sorry’. She was, like, ‘No, it’s okay’. Now we’re back cool again. It’s something that happened to me three days ago. Do not go back and look to see who I practiced three days ago. I will deny that.”