Even after almost 35 years of retirement from the racquet sport, Chris Evert still manages to be the talk of the town! Thanks to her controversial remarks during her commentaries. There have been many such instances in the past where she has been accused of being a bit too much “biased” towards Coco Gauff. However, this time fans couldn’t control their emotions after seeing Evert’s stance on Iga Swiatek at the 2024 US Open. Some simply just laughed at her reaction while others vented out their anger on the tennis legend. What did the 69-year-old tennis icon say this time, though?

Fans noticed Evert’s observation during a match that Iga Swiatek’s chances of winning the 2024 US Open had increased significantly with Coco Gauff‘s departure. For the unversed, Gauff experienced a Wimbledon-like fate, losing to Emma Navarro in R4. It seems Evert’s assessment was based on the assumption that Gauff, as a potential rival, was a significant obstacle for Iga Swiatek in the tournament. Is that really the case?

Iga Swiatek has been in red-hot form this year. The world number one has already won 5 titles in the 2024 season. Moreover, she’s yet to lose a set in the 2024 US Open. Coco Gauff, on the other hand, has won just one title in this season. More importantly, her forehand has been one of the reasons for her early exits from the French Open, Wimbledon, Paris Olympics and Cincinnati, now the US Open.

Even though Swiatek has time and again heaped praise on Gauff for her rapid progression, the 20-year-old knows how big is the gap between her and number one. After her French Open loss in this season, we saw her admit, “I know that there are things that I can improve to make this a closer scoreline.” So, fans think it’s more or less a one-sided battle between the two at the moment.

Chris Evert’s love for the American sensation is what perhaps leads her to these conclusions. We saw her pick Coco Gauff as the winner of the 2024 Wimbledon Championships. However, the youngster could only manage to reach the R16. Then again, during the third-round match of Coco Gauff and Elina Svitolina at the US Open, fans highlighted her “biased” commentary. They said she praised Gauff time and again, but didn’t say much about Svitolina in that match. However, fans feel she should be a bit careful before putting up a biased speech during her commentaries.

Fans aren’t too pleased with Chris Evert’s comments on Iga Swiatek

A fan questioned, “What opportunity? Their H2H is 11:1. What is Chrissie smoking?” Both of these WTA stars have played 12 times against each other so far in their careers. Currently, Swiatek leads the H2H by an 11-1 margin. It was obvious for fans to get baffled by Evert’s take on Swiatek’s path to her 6th major triumph. Especially in the form of Gauff, whose second serve has been the point of concern the whole year. However, this isn’t the first time that Evert has been found in the middle of all controversies due to her commentaries!

She was also criticized heavily for her commentary in the Gauff-Navrro match. Previously, during Naomi Osaka’s match, she was also accused of being a bit too insensitive towards Japanese culture. During Osaka’s R1 match against Jelena Ostapenko, Evert said, “I like the dress…it suits her, it suits the Japanese culture.” Although she might have said that as a word of praise, fans took it in the other sense. At that time, they were a bit shocked by her comment. Even this time, her comments bewildered them. “She can’t be serious,” wrote a few.

Not only that, her recent comments on Karolina Muchova during her second-round match against Osaka also received a flak from the fans. The 18-times Grand Slam winner was heard saying, “She (Muchova) plays like a guy. She wants to play like a guy. The guys have bigger serves than the women, they have better volleys for the most part, and they move a little bit better.” Several fans and even the players criticized the tennis legend for her comments. Ons Jabeur said, “Muchova is an amazing talented player. She doesn’t have to be a guy to have great serve, volley, or movement. Can we please stop stereotyping based on gender?”

Even Nick Kyrgios didn’t look too pleased with the comment. Chris Evert was later on forced to apologize. She said, “I apologize if I offended you both, certainly not my intention…Again, maybe my delivery could’ve been better, so sorry!” This time, after hearing her comments relating to Swiatek and Gauff, one of the fans reacted, “????? This woman is just saying b-llsh-t god.”

Evert joined ESPN as a tennis analyst in June 2011. Her enthusiastic voice is very popular among the fans, but her comments have created an unnecessary controversy surrounding her beloved profession. Back in September 2022, Chris Evert reacted to getting ‘Blasted’ for her commentary on players like Serena Williams, Coco Gauff and other: “You could say somebody was a clown and you wouldn’t get in trouble. You could say you know bad boys of tennis…and now it’s like Kyrgios is sort of a bad boy, but they are very cautious with how they explain it. You know, it’s just, it’s just so different. It’s just so different now.”

Perhaps this time she didn’t think her comments on Iga Swiatek would put her into so much trouble. Another laughed at her commentary and wrote, “LOL! That’s a good one! Like Iga really needs to fear Coco lol. What are these people smoking?” Well others said, “what was even funnier is that she said “you know now that iga has seen that coco and rybakina are out, this has to feel like an opportunity for her”… one of those h2hs is not like the other chrissie”. For those unaware, No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina withdrew from the 2024 US Open on Thursday due to a low back injury, putting French qualifier Jessika Ponchet into Round 3.

In February 2014, Evert said that, “I don’t want to just be a lady having lunch, getting manicures and pedicures every day and that’s it. I want to have a passion for what I’m doing.” While Evert’s passion for tennis is evident, her recent comments have prompted some fans to question if it might be time for her to step away from commentary. One of the fans wrote, “She also said Iga didn’t do well at the Olympics where she won Bronze in singles. Every other word out of her mouth was Coco. Time to retire, Chris.”

Although Swiatek managed to bring a medal for her nation, the youngest flag bearer for Team USA came empty-handed! Perhaps this is what the fan wanted to highlight here. Share your thoughts on Evert’s recent comment on Iga Swiatek’s biggest obstacle at the 2024 US Open.