Belarusian world number one Aryna Sabalenka suffered further French Open heartbreak, unable to seal a spot in the semifinal despite serving for the match as she was downed by Diana Shnaider in three sets, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0.
The four-time slam champion looked set to book her spot in the semifinal after winning the first set and leading 5-3 in the second. However, two points from victory while serving for the match, she was broken by left-handed Shnaider. The Russian went on to rattle off four consecutive games to seal the second set and force a decider.
In her first service game of the third set, Sabalenka was outlasted in a marathon 17-point game, in which she succumbed an early break to Shnaider to give her opponent an advantage. This triggered a collapse in Sabalenka’s powerful groundstroke-built game, as she sprayed errors all over the court.
Ultimately, Shnaider won the last ten games of the match in a row, including ‘bagelling’ Sabalenka in the decider as she took it 6-0 in the third.
Sabalenka unravels in last hour of the match
In a battle of power vs power, it was Shnaider who was able to maintain consistency and find her spots with more regularity in extremely windy conditions on Court Philippe Chartrier. With high winds wreaking havoc with Sabalenka’s depth, Shnaider was able to take advantage of errors while minimising her own.
Over the course of the match, Sabalenka was wayward as she hit 57 unforced errors, compared to only 27 from Shnaider’s side of the court. This offset her 46-25 lead in the winners column. In the third set, 17 errors from Sabalenka told the tale, as did the fact that she won only nine points out of 21 when she successfully landed her first serve.
French Open remains Sabalenka’s bogey
This marks another occasion of Sabalenka failing to take advantage in the French Open: with clay court favourite Iga Swiatek and defending champion Coco Gauff both eliminated earlier in the tournament, Sabalenka had an opportunity to assert her dominance over lower-ranked players left in the draw.
This also marks only the second time since the French Open in 2022 that Sabalenka has failed to reach the semifinal of a grand slam tournament: over the course of 14 grand slams in that period, she has reached the semifinal 13 times, marking this as a big upset for Shnaider.
As it stands, the clay court grand slam remains elusive for Sabalenka. This marks the first grand slam final as well as only the second win against a top ten opponent for Russian world no. 23 Shnaider, who now has the opportunity to reach the final if she can get past Polish qualifier Maja Chwalińska.
