Sabalenka says she fell into 'deep, dark hole' mentally in Paris shock

PARIS, June 3 : Aryna Sabalenka said she fell into a "deep, dark hole" during her three-sets loss to Russian Diana Shnaider in the French Open quarter-finals on Wednesday, after the world number one let her opportunities slip in the second set.

The Belarusian handled the blustery conditions to win the opening set, forged a commanding lead in the second and was two points away from victory, when the contest began to turn and Shnaider won the last 10 games to prevail 3-6 7-5 6-0.

Sabalenka said she had no thoughts, felt no emotions and wanted to "quit tennis right now" in the aftermath of the defeat as the four-times Grand Slam champion hoped to get back on track mentally in the next few weeks.

"I feel like I had very decent opportunities in the second set," Sabalenka told reporters.

"I screwed up, and then she stepped in and she played great. I feel like mentally I couldn't really recover after second set. That really was the biggest mistake.

"I don't know the last time I lost 10 games in a row ... I guess mentally I got into very deep, dark hole over there, and I just couldn't get back mentally on track."

Sabalenka was puzzled by the decision to keep the roof of Court Philippe Chatrier open as the wind caused issues for both players, sweeping the red dirt into their face at times, and affecting their ability to control their shots throughout.

"I don't know why would they keep the roof open when it was crazy windy," last year's runner-up Sabalenka added.

"But how can I complain if almost for the whole match everything was working okay for me, but then it just slipped away. I feel like it was getting crazy maybe just because mentally I wasn't really okay.

"Even though I was winning, it was dirty tennis. I don't know how people