Aryna Sabalenka has said she currently has “a hate relationship” with Wimbledon, and hit out at opponent Amanda Anisimova, after the world No 1 lost her third consecutive semi-final at the Championships on Thursday.
The top seed took time to compose herself after her 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 defeat, saying she wanted to avoid being the “crazy person” of Roland Garros, where Sabalenka criticised Coco Gauff after defeat to the American in the French Open final in June. Despite the delay, however, the Belarusian was still outspoken in her assessment of the match.
“Losing sucks, you know?” she said. “You always feel like you want to die, you don’t want to exist any more, and this is the end of your life. Every time you compete at that tournament, and you get to the last stages, you think that you’re getting close to your dream. Then you lose the match, and you feel like, OK, this is the end.”
Asked if she thought she could use this setback to inspire her to success here, the 27-year-old said: “It’s tough to think about that, but I really hope so. I lost three semis, three tough ones. Then I was banned from playing [in 2022]. Then I was injured. So I have really more of a hate relationship right now with Wimbledon, but I hope that one day I will turn it around and have [that] love relationship.”
Sabalenka commended her opponent for her “aggressive” play on the day and said Anisimova was a deserving winner. But she also said she was “pissed off” with the American for having apparently celebrated a point in the second set before the ball had passed Sabalenka’s racket.
“She was already celebrating it. I was, like, that’s a bit too early”, Sabalenka said. “Then she pissed me off saying that’s what she does all the time. I was grateful she actually said that because it’s actually helping me to keep fighting. So I came back because I got really angry in that moment.”
Anisimova later said she had not been celebrating and that any noise heard was a “long grunt”. Sabalenka also criticised her a second time, however, for not apologising after winning a point from a net cord. “I was like: you don’t want to say sorry? She just wanted, I guess, badly, to win this match. It’s on her. If she doesn’t feel like saying sorry, like she barely got that point and she didn’t feel like saying sorry for that tricky situation, that’s on her.”
