NEED TO KNOW
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Aryna Sabalenka was eliminated from the French Open on Wednesday, June 3, after a loss to No. 25 seed Diana Shnaider of Russia
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Sabalenka said she wants to “quit tennis right now” during her press conference after the loss
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“I guess mentally, I got into a very deep, deep dark hole over there, and I just couldn’t get back on track mentally,” Sabalenka said of the loss
Aryna Sabalenka has been eliminated from the French Open.
After the world No. 1 fell to No. 25 Diana Shnaider of Russia in the quarterfinals, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0, on Wednesday, June 3, Sabalenka told reporters she wanted to “quit tennis right now” during an emotional press conference.
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“No thoughts, no emotions. I want to quit tennis right now. We’ll see in a few days if I’m back on track mentally,” Sabalenka, 28, said, admitting she “screwed up” during the match while Shnaider, 22, “played great.”
Aryna Sabalenka
Credit: Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty
The Belarusian tennis star said, “I guess mentally, I got into a very deep, deep dark hole over there, and I just couldn’t get back on track mentally.”
Sabalenka said she felt “really great” going into the match before expressing frustration over the conditions, noting that it was “crazy windy” and the roof was kept open during play.
“But how can I complain if for almost the whole match everything was working okay for me, and then it just slipped away?” she said. “I feel like it was getting crazy maybe just because mentally I wasn’t really okay.”
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“I think it’s a combination of everything. You overthink, then you make easy mistakes, then you miss opportunities — and on the other side she’s stepping in and starting to play more aggressively, more free, kind of fearless,” she continued. “Sometimes it’s really tough to hold the pressure and put it back on her.”
When asked how she can bounce back from the defeat, Sabalenka admitted, “I honestly don’t know. I guess I don’t know. I don’t know.”
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But despite the stunning loss, Sabalenka said she will bounce back — and maybe take out her anger by “destroying stuff.”
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“Well, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, I guess,” she told reporters. “At some point, I’ll figure out the situation and we’ll get back tougher. By the way, I just figured out how I can overcome it — one of those rooms where you go in and smash everything. Probably I’ll spend a whole day tomorrow over there destroying stuff. Maybe it’ll help, maybe not.”
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