Both No. 1 seeds in men's and women's singles have now exited Roland-Garros after running the scoreboard right up to the threshold of victory and then suffering bizarre, ignominious collapse. A week after Jannik Sinner seized up, it was Aryna Sabalenka's turn to cave in.
Sabalenka was up 6-3, 4-1 on Diana Shnaider in Wednesday's quarterfinal, and leading her service game 30-0. From there, Sabalenka won just one more game in the match. She had a chance to serve it out at 5-4, and got within two points of victory, but after missing a putaway volley, she spiritually vanished from the premises. The husk of Sabalenka which remained on court blew 10 consecutive games to conclude a 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 loss to Shnaider, the No. 25 seed and a punchy 22-year-old lefty who had never previously advanced beyond the second round of this tournament. Sabalenka's loss ensures that there will be a first-time French Open champion in the women's draw, just as in the men's.
An inexplicable Sabalenka collapse while holding a big lead at Roland-Garros in windy conditions—why does that sound familiar? It was the exact outcome of the 2025 final, too. Last year, some combination of gusts and Coco Gauff's indefatigable defense unwound Sabalenka's game. This year, the loss of form came two rounds earlier in the tournament, and it was even more sudden and stark. For the back half of this match, Sabalenka's side of the court was a symphony of screams and errors. Nothing worked.
To her credit, Shnaider managed to keep landing huge forehands despite conditions that made it tricky to position one's feet and time the ball. Windy tennis can be ugly. It often requires players to abandon the mode they're most comfortable operating in and find an alternative way to win, or at least a more reliable style than the one found by their similarly struggling opponent. As Sabalenka played more conservatively to try to keep the ball in play, Shnaider saw easier and easier balls to attack, and the underdog cruised through a deciding set that had an ambiance of grim inevitability.
It was the fourth time in Sabalenka's career that she received a bagel at major tournament, and the first time since 2023, the year she ascended to No. 1 player in the world, a position she has held for most of the weeks since. "No thoughts, no emotions, just want to quit tennis right now, but we'll see in a few days," she said to open her postmatch press conference. "I guess mentally I got in a very deep, deep, dark hole over there, and I couldn't get back mentally on track," she said, of the 10 consecutive games lost.
Asked about the wind specifically, Sabalenka wished the tournament had closed the roof on Court Philippe-Chatrier. "I don't know why would they keep the roof open when it's crazy windy. But how can I complain if almost for the whole match, everything was working OK for me, but then it just slipped away?"
Had she won, Sabalenka would have advanced to a semifinal against the qualifier Maja Chwalińska, a far less imposing name than Iga Swiatek or Karolina Muchova, both of whom have previously challenged her in the late stages of this tournament. In the final, she would have faced Marta Kostyuk or Mirra Andreeva, tremendous talents who have nevertheless played a match of this gravity, and against whom Sabalenka has compiled a 9-2 record. This was an easy path. There's another similarity to Sinner: Despite being the best player in the world, the French Open title continues to elude her in painful ways. It's going to hurt.
"You know those rooms where you just go in and you smash everything?" Sabalenka asked at the end of her press conference. "Probably I'll spend a whole day tomorrow over there destroying stuff. Maybe it will help. Maybe not." On the plus side, more people will be introduced to the single best sartorial choice in professional tennis: Shnaider's pirate-style bandana.
