Aryna Sabalenka has threatened to quit tennis after losing 10 games in a row.
The world number one suffered a complete French Open meltdown after she fell to a 3-6 7-5 6-0 loss in the quarter-final against Diana Shnaider despite being just two points from victory on Wednesday, June 3.
At one point, Sabalenka was even forced to apologise as she booted a ball in frustration after a missed first serve that flew towards a line judge and ball kids and bounced into the crowd.
‘No thoughts, no emotions,’ said Sabalenka. ‘Just want to quit tennis right now, but we’ll see. We’ll see in few days. Hopefully I’ll get back on track mentally.
‘I don’t know when the last time that happened to me that I lost 10 games in a row. I don’t know. I guess mentally I got into very deep, deep, dark hole over there, and I just couldn’t get back mentally on track.
‘This is something that I actually have to kind of step back and try to find a solution because I just am so tired of me losing some matches not in the best way just because I was overemotional.
‘What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, I guess. At some point I will figure that little situation, and I only will get back tougher.
‘Actually, I just figured how I can overcome it. You know those rooms where you just go in and you smash everything? I will probably spend a whole day tomorrow over there destroying stuff. Maybe it will help; maybe not.’
Aryna Sabalenka suffered a similar collapse against Coco Gauff in last year’s French Open final. After racing to a 5-1 lead in the opening set, Sabalenka lost momentum and eventually fell in three sets.
