Aryna Sabalenka made a conscious effort to be a gracious loser at Wimbledon, but still took a swipe at new finalist Amanda Anisimova.
World No 1 and title favourite Sabalenka was beaten 6-4 4-6 6-4 by the 23-year-old American Anisimova in a dramatic Centre Court semi-final.
The top seed from Belarus came in for a lot of criticism for her sour grapes reaction following her defeat by Coco Gauff at last month’s French Open final.
So she breezed into Wimbledon’s media theatre giggling and said: “You’re not going to see a Roland Garros press conference, so anyone who was waiting for that, you can leave right now!”
She added: “I just don’t want to face that hate again. I mean, we’re all people. We all can lose control over our emotions. It’s absolutely normal.
“Even right now I took a bit more time before doing my media just so I can be Aryna, not that crazy person that was on that media day at Roland Garros.”
Nevertheless, a couple of incidents did irk the 27-year-old. The first was a point at 2-3 in the second set when Anisimova seemed to loudly celebrate a winner before the ball was past Sabalenka, which could have been called hindrance by the umpire.
“I was just trying to chase the ball. Yeah, she was already celebrating it. I was, like, I mean, that’s a bit too early,” she said.
“Then she kind of p****d me off saying that, ‘oh, that’s what she does all the time’.”
Anisimova, who will face Iga Swiatek in Saturday’s final, responded: “I don’t really know what was the deal there, to be honest, because I didn’t feel like it was that interfering. But yeah, I tried to not do it again.”
Then, with Sabalenka 2-4 down in the third, the 13th seed did not apologise after a groundstroke, which may have been floating wide, clipped the net cord and landed in.
Sabalenka added: “I just looked at her and, I mean, for sure she didn’t hear me. 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.”
But it is hard to paint Anisimova, who is a keen artist, as the villain of the piece.
Anisimova, who reached her only other grand slam semi-final six years ago in Paris as a 17-year-old, took an eight-month break from the sport in 2023 to prioritise her mental health.
She said: “I think that’s a really special message that I think I’ve been able to show because when I took my break, a lot of people told me that you would never make it to the top again.”
PA
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