Aryna Sabalenka has questioned the decision to keep the roof open at Roland Garros as her Parisian dream ended.
The world number one lost the last ten games as she suffered a 3-6 7-5 6-0 defeat to Diana Shnaider.
It was quite the mental breakdown from Sabalenka who struggled to adapt to the windy conditions.
Speaking after the match Sabalenka admitted she is sick of losing matches due to her lack of emotional control, “No thoughts, no emotions. 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,” Sabalenka stunningly said at the start of her press conference.
“I feel like I had very decent opportunities in the second set. I screw up, and then she stepped in and she played great. I feel like mentally I couldn’t really recover after second set. That really — yeah, I think that was the biggest mistake from me.
“No, I don’t know. I really feel great on clay. I feel great on grass. I think just, I don’t know, maybe I’m focusing too much that I never won a slam on each, you know, and maybe it’s kind of like make me overthink stuff, make me overemotional at some moment. I don’t know.
“This is something that I actually have to kind of, like, step back and kind of, like, 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.”
A big part of Sabalenka’s frustration and emotional breakdown was the effect that the wind was having on the overall quality of the match.
The world number one questioned why the roof remained open during the contest as she let her feelings out to journalists, “Yeah, that’s another question. I don’t know why would they keep the roof open when it’s, like, it was crazy windy,” Sabalenka stated.
“But how can I complain if almost for the whole match everything was working okay for me, but then it just slipped away. I feel like it was getting crazy maybe just because mentally I wasn’t really okay. So for me felt that it was getting crazy, but I remember even from last year, for our match, they kept the roof open, and the next day it was similar conditions, but for the guys they closed the roof just to make, I believe, better conditions and better quality of tennis. I don’t know why would they keep it open?
“Even though I was winning, it was very dirty tennis. I don’t know how people could actually just sit there and watch me play. I mean, then at some point she stepped in, and she played unbelievable in those conditions, but I don’t know. It’s a big question.”
Whether the roof is open or closed, it doesn’t matter now as Sabalenka’s dream to win Roland Garros goes on for another year.
Now, Sabalenka will aim to bounce back as she looks to win Wimbledon for the first time in her career next month, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, I guess,” Sabalenka claimed.
“At some point I will figure that little situation, and I only will get back tougher.”
