Coco Gauff defended after accusations of purposely losing to knock Iga Swiatek out

' ex-coach has jumped to defend Coco Gauff after she was accused of trying to knock one of her rivals out of the WTA Finals.

The 20-year-old won the season-ending championships last weekend after ending with a 2-1 record in her group-stage matches. Her one loss came when 's fate was in her hands.

Had Gauff won the match against Barbora Krecjickova, Swiatek also would've made it out of the group. And some fans alleged that the American tanked on purpose.

The round-robin permutations at the WTA Finals always get a bit tricky and that was the case this year in the Orange Group. The eight players are divided into two groups and the top two players from each group advance to the semi-finals.

Gauff had already cemented her spot in the semi-final when she beat Swiatek in their second match of the week. It gave her a 2-0 record while the Pole was 1-1 and left one spot up for grabs in the Orange Group.

The scenarios changed when pulled out , who had to face Swiatek last Thursday.

It meant Swiatek's result was irrelevant - she would stay in the group if Gauff beat Krejcikova in the second match of the day and would be knocked out if Gauff lost.

The American ultimately suffered a 7-5 6-4 defeat to Wimbledon champion Krejcikova,

Gauff went on to win the tournament, beating world No. 1 in the semi-final and Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng in the championship match.

But some fans thought she might have tanked her match against Krejcikova to get Swiatek out of the tournament.

Rennae Stubbs has now rubbished the idea, defending Gauff. Speaking on her podcast, the former doubles No. 1 said: "Somebody wrote about, 'Coco tanked the match against Krejcikova so Iga couldn't get through to the semi-finals.'

"No, that's not how it works. First of all, Coco says, 'I'm going to lose to Krejcikova and then have the possibility of playing Krejcikova again or I've already beaten Iga and now if I lose to Krejcikova then I get to play Sabalenka in the semis. Yeah!'"

Serena Williams' former coach also pointed out that Gauff lost out on extra ranking points and prize money by losing to Krejcikova - something she wouldn't have wanted to do. "No way, that's not what she's thinking," Stubbs continued.

"She's thinking, 'I want to win again, I want to get more money into my pocket.' Because if she'd gone undefeated, she'd have made even more money. If you go undefeated, you get an extra bonus."

By coming second place in the group, Gauff had to face Sabalenka in the semi-final. And Stubbs also thought the 20-year-old would have wanted to avoid meeting the world No. 1 so early.

"For anyone to suggest that Coco went in there with the dubious sense of, 'I'm going to kick out Iga Swiatek,' is nonsense," she added.

"There's no way you want to lose a match going into the semifinals, arguably playing against the best player on hard courts all year in Sabalenka. So, stop with the nonsense. That is not what happened. She got beat and she was pissed about losing."

Gauff still pocketed £3.7m for winning the season-ending tournament. But she would have earned £4m had she gone undefeated during the week.