Coco Gauff explains why she refused to stay silent over 'mentality of a 5-year-old' remark

has revealed why she set the record straight after being accused of having a 'child's mentality'.

Gauff has endured a mixed year following on from her first Grand Slam title at the backend of 2023, with the American reaching the semi-final of both the Australian and French Opens, but struggling at and the .

Away from the Slams she has found success on tour, most recently going all the way in the Beijing Open, beating Katie Boulter, Naomi Osaka and Paula Badosa, before taking a straight sets win against Karolina Muchova in the final.

But it's her recent , with one user claiming on X: "coco has the mentality of a 5-year-old old i'm sorry".

It was in response to an Instagram post the WTA star had put up, where she mocked trolls by saying: "sHe OnLy wInS 250s... well.... WOMP WOMP," a direct response to those who claim her wins had only been in lesser WTA events.

Guaff was quick to hit back at the user who suggested she had a child's mentality, shutting it down by saying: "Honestly kids have the best outlook on life. they are so positive and creative. so I'll take it (heart emoji) my goal this tournament was to play and enjoy tennis as much as I did when I was a kid because that's when life was/is the most fun!"

However, the 20-year-old has since revealed why she spoke out against the dissenting voice, claiming: "You know, you could just stay silent. There's sometimes the ones that you respond back. For me, I'm never going to be, like, nasty to someone. You think it. But I believe that the energy you put into the world. I try to put in good energy.

"For me, I realise that you can never make everybody happy. There was a lot of comments on Twitter about, like, how I've only 250s. That's not true. I won a slam, I won a 1000, I won a 500. I won another one a couple days ago."

Before adding: "Yeah, for me it's just like you'll never satisfy anybody. We ended up ending it on good terms. It wasn't like a feud. The person thought I was immature."

Guaff has the chance to make it back-to-back tournament wins at the Wuhan Open, with the one-time Grand Slam champion taking on Marta Kostyuk in the competition's third round.