Aryna Sabalenka takes it worse than Jannik Sinner: "I want to quit"

World number one Aryna Sabalenka in a press conference could not explain her incredible defeat in the Roland Garros quarterfinals against Russian Diana Shnaider. After finding herself ahead 6-3, 5-3, the Belarusian champion had an inexplicable meltdown, losing 10 consecutive games, and was resoundingly eliminated. A match trend similar to the one that led to the elimination of men’s number one Jannik Sinner, and equally shocking.

In the press room Sabalenka is the picture of disappointment: “I have no thoughts, no emotions, I just want to stop playing tennis right now, but we will see in a few days. I hope to regain the right mental focus after what happened.”

Sabalenka, a four-time Slam winner but never able to impose herself in Paris, tried to analyze what happened: “In the second set I had very good opportunities but I made a mistake, she took advantage of it and played great. I did not recover mentally after the second set. I can’t remember the last time I lost 10 games in a row, I ended up in a very deep and dark mental abyss.”

The Tiger from Minsk will now try to understand what happened: “I’m tired of losing matches unexpectedly, I just need to understand that little detail that sometimes doesn’t work for me and hopefully I will be able to overcome what happened. The wind? I don’t understand why they kept the roof open in that very strong wind. But how can I complain if for almost the whole game everything went well, and then suddenly it got out of hand?”