the grounds here on Roland Garos. Everyone was trying to process how quickly it turned from a second set domination from Sabalanka to a surprise win from Schneider. Afterwards, a very honest Arena Sabalanka at the podium. >> No thoughts, no emotions, just want to quit tennis right now. But we’ll see. We’ll see in a few days.
Hopefully, I’ll get back on track. I guess mentally I got into very deep deep dark hole over there and I just couldn’t get back mentally on track. This is something that I actually have to, you know, kind of like step back and kind of like try to find a solution because I just I’m so tired of me losing some matches not in the best way just because I was over emotional.
You know those rooms where you just go in and you smash everything? Probably I’ll spend a whole day tomorrow over there destroying stuff. Maybe we’ll help. Maybe not. >> A lot of honesty, a lot of cander. Kind of reminiscent of what we saw from her battle against Coco Golf in the championship last year where the wind took over. Koko could handle it.
Arena, not so much. Your reaction to her comments, Venus? >> Oh, I was feeling sad actually. I was kind of like taking on her emotions. A lot of empathy for her and she leaves it all on the court. you see everything she feels on the court and perhaps maybe take a little more time if you need to before the press conference because I don’t think she wants to quit tennis like that’d be a tragedy for tennis and a tragedy for her but of when you lose it’s just so like uh the inner struggle is real so I like that she lets us in um
lets us be a part of her world in that way but what happened today it happens to every player at some point in time and it hurts I think the worst part is that you’ve let your own self down. You having to deal with with letting yourself down is the hardest thing in the world. If you just get beat, you just got beat, right? Somebody wiped you off the court, you got beat, they played better, you can deal with that.
But right now, she’s dealing with her own disappointment. It’s hard to sleep at night with that. But >> what I’ll also say is that any of us would take the year she’s had. >> Oh, you’re a lying. >> So, I think she’s just amplifying in this moment like this moment, but she’s had a great year and I I don’t think she should have any regrets.
and this just make her stronger. >> In our 85th week of being number one in the world, I’m curious for all of you when you have that moment and you have to collect yourself. What was that process like for you? >> Oh my god. I immediately start ordering like all the foods I don’t eat and I’m so embarrassed at the hotel. Like I just kind of put my arm out the door and like I don’t want them to see the faces.
I have like these pies and candy. >> Anything you can think of coming in. >> Man, what would you like? the entire menu, please. >> Yes. All of it. McDonald’s, honestly. So, it’s it’s the best moment to like just let yourself go. So, that’s that’s how I dealt with it. I think my team would be like afraid of me, too, because sometimes I just leave the court like from the site, racket bags gone, and everybody’s like, >> “Don’t go around her.
” >> Right. >> And I seem like a nice one, but nobody’s nice when they’re losing, you know? >> Carol, what do you think? What do you think her process is going to be? Well, I think she’s just got to learn from it. As as Venus was saying, we’ve all been there. We’ve all gone through it. We’ve all had those disappointments where we thought we were going to win and we let it slip away and then we don’t really know how we ended up in this situation.
And >> just got to go reset, take a few days, whether it’s smashing rackets, ordering dessert, going back on the practice court, not seeing a court, whatever makes you feel better. I guess that’s that’s kind of the next step, right? >> Do they have the rage rooms here in Paris? >> They have everything in Paris.
>> You got everything in Paris. Okay. >> But you know she lost in the Australian Open finals. Sloan to Robachina. A lot of stress there. Came back won the Sunshine double Indian Wells Miami. She can bounce back. How what what kind of a revamped arena will we see after she goes and collects herself. >> So I like to what she has she has bounce back ability.
So I think for her she is emotional but her emotions are also what fuel her to win and to come back. So yes it’s emotional now but in a week she’s probably going to be fine. She’s going to go on a little vacation. She’s going to go hang out with her fiance and she’s going to be fine. Her team’s going to give her that break of, okay, >> it happened again. No big deal.
We’ll work on it. We’ll fix it. But you have to look at all the things in her game that she’s actually improved. Like, she is getting better. We saw so many drop shots. We saw her coming to the net. We saw serving and balling. We all of the things that she’s actually trying to improve, she’s working on. And yes, she’s emotional, but the emotions are what actually make her the number one player in the world.
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>> So many different crazy changes these last two weeks. Sabilanka was sort of the one that we went, well, she’s still making her run. Add it to the list of expecting the unexpected. We will have two new firsttime major champions. Haven’t had that since Medvadev and Ratakanu in 2021 at the US Open. Zero major champions headed to the semifinals. Both top seeds falling.
That’s official today. Haven’t seen that in 16 years. and zero top seven women’s seats when we came in with those top four of EGA, Rabbachina, Koko, Savalena, just models of consistency. And is your girl Diana Schneider getting it done low-key your favorite player on tour? No offense to anyone here. >> Well, yeah, she is my favorite player.
I love how she plays. I love the spunk that she plays with and just she goes out there and she fights. And I mean, look, you take out Madison Keith 6 in the third. Sabinka 6 and third. arguably two of the biggest hitters on the WTA tour. She just beat them with consistency and patience and a lot of poise out there.
Um, and she just let those players kind of unravel late in these matches. She did it again today against Seth Lincoln. >> I think too with Schneider when you look at her draw, right, she mentioned she won the the third set today 6 um against Madison Keys who was 6. If you go back to her other matches, her first round 64 61, her second round 76 61, third round 7561.
Her in-game adjustments have been really impressive, right? You see like she’s battling that first set and then boom, figuring out her opponent and then just dominating that second set or in the last two matches it was the third set. >> And I have to imagine the weather will be similar. So, she was able to handle the wind so well if that’s what she gets in the semis or even so a final.
Pretty good preparation. >> Yeah, for sure. I mean, the best players know how to adapt to conditions. Obviously, wind is an equalizer more so than anything else. It’s not easy to get in position. Today, Sabalinka was really running away from it. And then all of a sudden, she stopped moving her feet. The good thing about being someone who doesn’t only use their power, but has the feel, has the touch like Schneider does, she can adapt, right? That that’s how she wins matches. She adapts.
She can put in the slice, the drop shot. She comes to the net. She uses her lefty to put the ball high into someone’s backand. It’s that’s I think for her, wind is not really an issue. >> Yeah. When you’re used to hitting through the court, when the wind starts and though you can’t control the ball, it’s a nightmare.
But when you have like that variety and you’re used to having to push people around through like the spins and the drops and the angles, it’s a lot easier to adjust. I mean, personally, I’d pick the heat over the wind. That’s every player would choose something different. I think maybe she would choose the wind because it really worked for her today.
Just to show how unexpected it is tomorrow in this women’s semi-final, it’s going to be two lefties battling it out. You rarely see one, let alone two. That is going to be coming up tomorrow. Been one of the more wild Roland Garos tournaments that we have had in many, many years. None of the favorites made it.
New favorites making their
