Sabalenka says she fell into a deep hole after French Open shock loss

Aryna Sabalenka’s French Open run collapsed in one brutal stretch on Court Philippe-Chatrier, and the world No. 1 said the emotional damage hit almost as hard as the scoreline. Diana Shnaider, the No. 25 seed, came from a set and a double-break down to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 on June 3 in Paris, taking the last 10 games and sending the 22-year-old into her first Grand Slam semifinal.

Sabalenka’s loss was more than a single upset. It snapped a run of six consecutive major semifinals, left her still without a Roland-Garros title after reaching the 2025 final, and extended the gap between her hard-court dominance and the clay-court breakthrough she has been chasing. Her Grand Slam singles titles have come at the Australian Open and US Open, not in Paris, and this defeat again exposed how narrow the margin is when she reaches the late rounds at the biggest tournaments.

Sabalenka said she had “very decent opportunities” in the second set, including serving for the match at 5-4 before the match turned. She said the failure to close it left her unable to recover mentally and that she would need a few days to reset. In the immediate aftermath, she said she wanted to quit tennis right now, a stark admission from a four-time Grand Slam champion whose game has carried her to the top of the rankings but not yet to a French Open crown.

The conditions sharpened the collapse. Sabalenka complained that the roof of Court Philippe-Chatrier stayed open even as the wind drove red clay into the players’ faces and made shot control difficult. She did not lean on the weather alone, though. She pointed to her own emotional spiral, saying she was tired of losing matches in ways that were so hard to absorb.

The match also fit the broader shape of this French Open. Roland-Garros said Sabalenka had been the steadiest force in a wildly unpredictable fortnight before she lost her grip in the blustery quarterfinal, and the women’s semifinal field was set to produce a first-time Grand Slam champion in Paris. Shnaider’s rise added another layer to that picture: an emerging all-court threat with a growing tour resume who turned a match that looked all but over into a statement win, while Sabalenka was left to confront again how much elite tennis now demands, not just physically, but mentally, when a lead disappears in front of the sport’s biggest stage.