“I just told her I didn’t respect her as a competitor,” Navarro said of the exchange, per AFP. “I think she goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way. It makes for a locker room that doesn’t have a lot of camaraderie, so it’s tough to face an opponent like that, who I really don’t respect.”

“She told me she doesn’t know how I have a lot of fans,” Zheng said. “It looks like she’s not happy with my behavior toward her. If she’s not happy about my behavior, she can come and tell me. I would like to correct it to become a better player and a better person.”

Zheng clarified that she wasn’t upset by Navarro’s words. “I’m glad that she told me that,” Zheng continued. “I will not consider it an attack because she lost the match.”

this is one of three times a US tennis player has acted like a sore loser in the past several days:

Danielle Collins scratches her match due to “injury” as she was losing. After her Polish opponent congratulated her on her career, Collins calls her “insincere” before walking away. She then played doubles 2 hours after her supposed injury.

Coco Guaff argues with chair umpire after losing to Croatia, says “this always happens to me” while crying. (i think some people are debating if her gripe was somewhat fair, but i feel like implying the judge is always out to get you is definintely doing too much. at least she didn’t disrespect her opponent 🤷)