Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shocking defeat at the Roland Garros quarter-finals: when she was just one game away for winning the match, she suffered a total mental collapse and lost the third set 6-0, defeated by 22-year-old Russian player Diana Shnaider, 25th seed in the French Open, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0.
The World No. 1 went from dancing the 'moonwalk' in the tennis court after a victory, to claiming she "wants to quit tennis". "No thoughts, no emotions. I just want to quit tennis right now, but we'll see in a few days. Hopefully I'll get back on track mentally", Sabalenka said (via Sky Sports). "I don't know when the last time was that I lost 10 games in a row".
While the match was problematic for both due to the windy conditions, Shnaider took control in the difficult situations while Sabalenka gave up, saying she "feel into a very deep, dark hole". "I feel I had very decent opportunities in the second set. I screwed up, and then she stepped in and she played great. I feel mentally I couldn't really recover after the second set. I think that was the biggest mistake from me."