Aryna Sabalenka suffered a wild meltdown inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday as the two-time defending champion was denied a shot at a historic three-peat at the US Open , losing to Elena Rybakina 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the final. She beat herself up throughout the 2-hour, 21-minute ordeal, which was littered with self-inflicted mistakes.
Sabalenka smashed her racquet as she took her bench after congratulating Rybakina on the win, and later vented at the cameraman when the camera panned towards her during the post-match proceedings. If I were to hold it inside, right now or on the court I wouldn’t be able to say a word. I would go not really nice over there. The frustration was still evident when Sabalenka took the stage for the post-match presentation. Asked to step forward for the customary speech after collecting the runners-up award, she choked back tears. “Thank you, everyone. Thank you for support throughout the two weeks. It was amazing playing in front of you all. “There’s lots of things to take from this tournament. As experience shows, I only come back stronger, and all of these lessons this season definitely already made me stronger. Definitely going to motivate me for the next year to do a better job.”
“It’s really tough to control your emotions when you lose in a final of a Grand Slam and when you were trying to go for 3-peat.
I wanted to let go of all that aggression and disappointment outside,” she said. “That’s the last thing I want to do right now is do speech, but I’ll try my best,” the tearful runner-up said. “I’ll just keep working hard and keep improving my tennis,” Sabalenka said.
