Sabalenka made a strong start to her Wimbledon campaign<\/a>, winning her opening match in straight sets.<\/p>\nThe woman who Sabalenka beat in round one has now said she wants to play the 27-year-old again \u2018really badly\u2019.<\/p>\n
Carson Branstine wants to play Aryna Sabalenka again \u2018really badly\u2019 after Wimbledon defeat<\/p>\n
Appearing as a guest on \u2018The Slice Tennis\u2019, Branstine reflected on her defeat to Sabalenka at SW19.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, the first set was not great, and a lot of people thought I was nervous. I\u2019ve already said this around, but I actually wasn\u2019t nervous once I was out there. It was just like\u2026 You think you have a game plan, but she\u2019s number one in the world. So it doesn\u2019t really matter what you do; she can clearly beat anybody,\u201d said Branstine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went out there in the first set, I kind of felt like I was trying to find my ground, like, where does my game match up with this girl?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like I have a lot of experience behind me to know how my game matches up with top ten players, because the only top 20 player I\u2019ve played and beaten was [Liudmila] Samsonova, a couple of weeks earlier.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHer career high was 12th. I was clearly the better player on that day; she wasn\u2019t injured, she didn\u2019t have a bad day, I just outplayed her, I was the better tennis player on that day in Holland.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut playing someone like [Aryna] Sabalenka is completely different, because she beats girls top ten 6-0, 6-1 sometimes, so I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t know what the heck is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding her groove as the match went on, Branstine thinks she now knows why she lost to the world number one.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I had that first game and had that funny moment, and celebrated with the crowd. I was like, ok, I\u2019ve been in a lot of these games, even though I\u2019m making errors, I\u2019m still hitting winners, and my serve could be so much better, so let\u2019s just go on that, see if I can hold,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Carson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2223280583-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Marleen Fouchier\/BSR Agency\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I started to hold every time, realised that when we got into the rallies, I was winning most of the long rallies.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking at the stats afterwards, even though it was 6-1, 7-5, we both hit the same number of winners, we both hit 17 winners in the match, I had seven aces, she only had three.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of the dictating stats, I was equal or better; it was just unforced errors. That\u2019s a huge thing, knowing I was the one making mistakes, I was beating myself, taking that away with confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have game, I have weapons, the sky is the limit now, I just have to back it up and keep going, take care of the details, and see.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Knowing that the unforced errors cost her, Branstine can\u2019t wait for a rematch with the world number one and an opportunity to address those mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to play her again really badly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot in a bad way, I think she\u2019s super nice, I actually love her personality, but I think it\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Set to debut at a career-high ranking of 174th on Monday, it may still be some time before Branstine and Sabalenka regularly face off on the WTA Tour.<\/p>\n
At 24 years of age, there\u2019s plenty of time for Branstine to rise up the rankings, an opportunity she awarded herself by choosing not to quit the sport earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Carson Branstine nearly quit tennis before the 2025 French Open<\/p>\n
Before 2025, Branstine had never appeared at a Grand Slam event, whether that be the main draw or qualifying.<\/p>\n
Setting herself a target of making the cut for French Open<\/a> qualifying, the Canadian planned to quit the sport if she failed.<\/p>\n\u201cI was pretty keen on following through with it,\u201d said Branstine.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, in my head, I was like, I have to be playing the worst tennis not to make it. I\u2019d have to lose every match in the next two months not to make it, that\u2019s not impossible, but close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branstine went as far as applying for another job outside of tennis, which she now admits she would have taken.<\/p>\n
![\"Carson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2222152135-1024x643.jpg\")
Photo by Rob Newell \u2013 CameraSport via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty certain that I was going to do it, but I applied for a venture capital job, I got called back and everything, I felt like if I had gone for that, I would for sure have been hired,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was in downtown LA, I knew what my salary would have been. I was that far [along].<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t Roland Garros, it\u2019s something else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branstine made the cut, and won her opening match in French Open qualifying, as she decided to continue playing tennis.<\/p>\n
Now a solid top 200 player, Branstine will continue to play lower-tier tournaments in a bid to build her ranking.<\/p>\n
Branstine will return to action at the Evansville ITF tournament, which begins on Monday, July 21.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka is the world number one, and for good reason, as she continues to dominate her WTA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[652,653,99,428,96,654],"class_list":{"0":"post-504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","9":"tag-carson-branstine","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-wimbledon","13":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Aryna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2195838409-1-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Graham Denholm\/Getty Images<\/p>\n