French Open Day 11 - Sabalenka self-destructs in the wind
The Tennis Podcast
David Law
4.5 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2026
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Catherine, David and Matt react to another seismic upset at Roland Garros as Aryna Sabalenka lost 12 of the last 13 games in her quarter-final against Diana Shnaider.
Part one - Our reaction to a shocking Sabalenka loss in the wind. How did she lose 10 games in a row from 6-3 5-3? How come she didn’t learn from last year’s final against Gauff? And can we now say she’s under performing at the majors? We also chat about how Maja Chwalinska’s life-changing run continued with her victory against Anna Kalinskaya.
Part two (38:41) - We discuss Flavio Cobolli’s comeback against Felix Auger-Aliassime, the way he’s seizing his opportunity at this tournament, and the sad scenes as Matteo Berrettini was forced to retire against Matteo Arnaldi.
Part three - Women’s semi-finals preview (1:05:29).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the tennis podcast on day 11 of the French Open, a grisly day here in Paris, a day in which the weather has once again made itself a main character at this |
| 0:22.2 | extraordinary Grand Slam, a major tournament which for the first time since Roland Garros |
| 0:28.1 | 1977 will feature no Grand Slam champions in either the men's or women's semi-final |
| 0:36.2 | lineups. And that is because of the shocking defeat earlier this afternoon of world number one |
| 0:42.8 | Arena Sabalenko beaten from a set and five three up by Russian 25th seed, Deanna Schneider. |
| 0:51.6 | This was not a normal defeat. |
| 0:53.8 | This was a total implosion from Sabalenko. She lost |
| 0:58.2 | 10 games in a row and 12 of the last 13. By the end of the match, she looked like she wanted to get |
| 1:05.9 | off court more than she wanted to stay and fight to the bitter end. It was reminiscent of her combustion |
| 1:11.9 | against Cocoa Goff in last year's final with similar, windy weather conditions playing |
| 1:17.4 | apart. But for me, Matt and David, this was another level of crash out altogether from |
| 1:24.5 | Sabalanka today? Totally. |
| 1:28.1 | Crash out, flame out, implosion, however you want to describe it. |
| 1:33.4 | And I just did not see this coming at all. |
| 1:38.3 | You know, like the weather conditions were pretty consistent throughout this match, right? |
| 1:44.2 | It was windy. |
| 1:45.8 | And we know Sabalenko does not like wind. |
| 1:48.2 | And even in the portion of the match that she was winning, |
| 1:52.4 | she didn't really look like she was having a lot of fun, |
| 1:54.6 | like she was enjoying it. |
| 1:56.0 | It was pretty unconvincing. |
| 1:57.6 | But she had built that convincing lead. |
... |
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