French Open Day 11 - Sabalenka self-destructs in the wind

**Catherine** (0:10)
Hello, and welcome to The Tennis Podcast. On day 11 of the French Open, a grizzly day here in Paris, a day in which the weather has once again made itself a main character at this extraordinary Grand Slam, a major tournament which for the first time since Roland Garros' 1977 will feature no Grand Slam champions in either the men's or women's semifinal lineups. And that is because of the shocking defeat. Earlier this afternoon of world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, beaten from a set and 5-3 up by Russian 25th seed, Diana Shnaider. This was not a normal defeat. This was a total implosion from Sabalenka. She lost 10 games in a row and 12 of the last 13 By the end of the match, she looked like she wanted to get off court more than she wanted to stay and fight to the bitter end. It was reminiscent of her combustion against Koko Gauff in last year's final with similar windy weather conditions playing a part. But for me, Matt and David, this was another level of crash out altogether from Sabalenka today.

**Matt** (1:27)
Totally. Crash out, flame out, implosion, however you want to describe it.
And I just did not see this coming at all, you know, like the weather conditions were pretty consistent throughout this match, right? It was windy. And we know Sabalenka does not like wind. And even in the portion of the match that she was winning, she didn't really look like she was having a lot of fun, like she was enjoying it. It was pretty unconvincing. But she had built that convincing lead, you know, double break up in the second set of 4-1, 5-3 up, as you said. For her not to win another game after that was so, so shocking. You know, like I cannot tell you how little jeopardy there felt in this one, right? Like, the press seats up on Châtrier were more or less empty midway through that second set for the world number one because she was cruising and everyone was getting to know Maja Chwalinska in the press conference room who'd just won through. So that room was packed. Everyone was like, oh, Sabalenka's got this.
And it just unraveled from there. And Shnaider applied quite a lot of pressure. Her resistance was great. She really found her forehand. She did a lot of things to disrupt Sabalenka in this match. But basically, Sabalenka lost her head and stopped being able to find the court, quite frankly. The number of errors that piled up was extraordinary. And right at the start of the third set, there was a game on Sabalenka's serve at Love One where she did have some resistance. She saved some break points. She put her arm aloft. There was some fight there. As soon as she lost that game, it all went. And she lost the remaining four games very quickly. And I was absolutely shocked.
We have now lost Sinner in this tournament from 6-3, 6-2, 5-1 up. He won two more games from that position. And we've lost Sabalenka from 6-3, 5-3 up. And she won no more games from that position. I mean, it is absolutely shocking what has happened to Sabalenka and Sinner here. Like, crazy. I can't get my head around it.

**Catherine** (3:55)
I think what shocked me most about the experience of watching, obviously, the result in itself is totally shocking, but the experience of watching it, David and I watched this together at the apartment. You were here in the press seats on Châtier was how little I believed that she was going to come back from this. Like with Yannick Sinner, I didn't think it was likely that he had come back from it. But even until quite near the end, I was thinking, but maybe, but maybe.
As you said, once she, other than that tiny bit of resistance at the start of the third set, she was rushing, she wanted to get out of there. And that's not lack of... I don't quite know how to put it, because there is no doubting how much she wants to win, how much she wants to win this title in particular, because she hasn't won it before, and she wants to do the career slam. You know, how much she dedicates herself to being the best she can be, including in terms of her competitiveness. But all of that drained from her body today. She wanted to get off that tennis court, David.
It was like invasion of the body snatches. I don't know what happens to her.

**David** (5:11)
Well, to me, it's about the line. She became pissed off with the weather conditions, with her inability to just win, because she just expects to win. She expects to win quickly, now. Every time she's got the racket, she expects to win the point, really. And she expects to win now. As soon as she takes the ball in her hand for the serve, she expects to serve an ace. When she's returning, she expects to hit a winner. And she's always living with that degree of frustration that it's not happening every point. But it's the right side of the line. It's what makes her all the more ravenous for the next point. And if you push her, she gets more dangerous.