Aryna Sabalenka Makes Bold Claim After Shocking Roland-Garros Defeat

At least Jannik Sinner can take solace in the fact that he wasn’t the only one.

Sinner, the men’s world No. 1, suffered a shocking defeat to No. 56 Juan Manuel Cerndolo in the second round at Roland-Garros on May 28.

The tennis world collectively dissected what went wrong for Sinner — until 24-time Grand Slam major champion Novak Djokovic lost a five-set thriller against Joao Fonseca in the third round on May 29. Djokovic’s exit guaranteed a brand-new Grand Slam champion in men’s singles at Roland-Garros this year.

But the women’s draw still boasted some familiar faces: the defending champion Coco Gauff, the women’s world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, and the resurgent Naomi Osaka.

Then, Anastasia Potapova defeated Gauff on Saturday. Sabalenka took out Osaka on Monday. And Sabalenka suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of No. 25 Diana Shnaider, guaranteeing a brand-new Grand Slam champion in women’s singles, too.

Sabalenka won the first set, 6-3, and was cruising in the second set before Shnaider stormed back and won 10 consecutive games to win the match in three sets, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0. It’s a gutting result for Sabalenka, who has occupied the No. 1 throne for 85 consecutive weeks but only has one Slam title (the 2025 US Open) since January 2025.

Sabalenka didn’t hide her heartbreak during her post-match presser.

“No thoughts, no emotions, just want to quit tennis right now, but we’ll see,” Sabalenka said to open her presser. “We’ll see in a few days. Hopefully, I’ll get back on track mentally.”

More specifically, Sabalenka said she “screw[ed] up” in the second set, allowing Shnaider to take advantage. “I feel like, mentally, I couldn’t really recover after the second set,” she said. “I think that was the biggest mistake from me.”

Later in the presser, Sabalenka commented on the intense wind during the match.

“Yeah, that’s another question: I don’t know why they would keep the roof open when it was crazy windy. But how can I complain if almost for the whole match everything was working OK for me, but then it just slipped away?” Sabalenka said. “I feel like it was getting crazy, maybe just because mentally I wasn’t really okay.”

She continued:

“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 better conditions and better quality of tennis. I don’t know why they would keep it open. Even though I was winning, it was very dirty tennis. I don’t know how people could actually sit there and watch me play. And then at some point, she stepped in and played unbelievable in those conditions.”

The women’s singles semifinal matches — Shnaider versus Maja Chwalinska, and Mirra Andreeva versus Marta Kostyuk — are scheduled for Thursday, June 4.

Watch Sabalenka’s full presser below.