French Open<\/a> title. The 29-year-old has been so consistent at the slams and she has improved so much as a tennis player over the years. Yet one of the most significant themes in her career has been how frequently she is completely shackled by tension and nerves in the most decisive moments. Even her collapse in last year\u2019s final defeat to Coco Gauff did not come close to this surrender.<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t know when was the last time that I lost 10 games in a row,\u201d added Sabalenka in the aftermatch. \u201cMentally I got into very deep, deep, dark hole over there, and I just couldn\u2019t get back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabalenka also saved some of her frustration for the tournament organisers. She believes the roof should have been closed considering how difficult the windy conditions had become: \u201cI don\u2019t know why would they keep it open? Even though I was winning, it was very dirty tennis. I don\u2019t know how people could actually just sit there and watch me play,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Shnaider said she had Sabalenka\u2019s loss to Gauff in the back of her mind as she tried to fight back: \u201cI watched it. I knew that it was also super windy. So of course I had that thought in the back of my mind that she was struggling with Coco last year. I was, like, \u2018Yeah, I have got to use this opportunity, I need to just adjust and do my best\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 90 minutes after Sabalenka departed Court Philippe Chatrier, the roof was indeed closed for the second set of the men\u2019s semi-final match between Felix Auger-Aliassime and Flavio Cobolli.<\/p>\n
As shocking as Sabalenka\u2019s performance was in the second half of the match, Shnaider played her part to perfection. Once Sabalenka began to look vulnerable, she locked down her game, dragging Sabalenka into lengthy, attritional rallies in the heavy conditions while brilliantly absorbing Sabalenka\u2019s pace and maintaining immaculate depth. She gradually wrestled control of the baseline from her frazzled opponent and her wicked lefty forehand, her biggest weapon, throughout the final set.<\/p>\n
Diana Shnaider celebrates her quarter-final victory against Aryna Sabalenka. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Such a big win has been a long time coming for Shnaider, a talented 22-year-old who has been ranked inside the top 20 for nearly two years but badly struggled to make her mark at the biggest tournaments and against the best players. Now she has earned herself the opportunity of her lifetime in a field of youngsters that will end with a new grand slam champion.<\/p>\n
Shnaider will next face one of the most surprising grand slam semi-finalists in recent years, the qualifier Maja Chwalinska, who defeated the 22nd seed Anna Kalinskaya to advance. Chwalinska is ranked No 114 in the WTA rankings, she has never previously broken the top 100 and she had just one grand slam main draw win before this event. Although she has not faced a top 20 opponent, the Pole has put together an incredible run in Paris, rolling through eight matches with the loss of just one set.<\/p>\n
At just 24 years old, Chwalinska is actually the oldest of the four semi-finalists. In the bottom half, the 19-year-old eighth seed Mirra Andreeva, Shnaider\u2019s doubles partner, will face Marta Kostyuk, the 23-year-old 15th seed, in the latest duel between Russian and Ukrainian players.<\/p>\n
As for Sabalenka, she was initially stumped when asked how on earth she would bounce back from such a bitter disappointment. However, after giving the topic some thought, she had at least one solution. \u201cBy the way, I just figure how I can overcome it,\u201d said Sabalenka, smiling. \u201cYou know those rooms where you just go in and you smash everything? Probably I will spend a whole day tomorrow over there destroying stuff. Maybe it will help, maybe not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka said she wanted \u201cto quit tennis\u201d in an immediate post-match outburst after suffering one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-712738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}