Aryna Sabalenka admitted she didn’t feel physically well in the Montreal conditions on Friday. After Sabalenka’s Montreal round-of-16 match was postponed due to lengthy rain delays on Thursday, the Belarusian finally took on the court for her match against Samsonova on Friday. In a match that lasted nearly three hours, Sabalenka ended on the losing side as Samsonova ended up taking out the second-seeded Belarusian 7-6 (2) 4-6 6-3.Ā
“Yeah, I mean, we’re all in the same conditions. Not like all. Only four of us. But it is how it is, and I didn’t deal well with these conditions. Next time I’ll try a little better. Yeah, I would say that because physically I didn’t feel well, so I wasn’t able to move as good as I could, to serve as good as I could, so this was the toughest one for me today,” Sabalenka said.
Sabalenka: Samsonova played unbelievable tennis
After the loss, Sabalenka acknowledged Samsonova delivered a good performance and probably deserved to win.Ā
“Yeah, it was a really tough match. She played unbelievable tennis. Unfortunately, physically I wasn’t ready to play at my highest level today, but I’m still happy with the level I showed. More likely the fighting spirit than the level,” Sabalenka said.
As no breaks of serve were seen in the first set, the opener had to be resolved in a tie-break. In the first-set tie-break, Sabalenka had a 2-1 lead before Samsonova won the next six points to win the tie-break and clinch a tight opener. After losing the first set, Sabalenka broke Samsonova in the fifth game of the second set and then held on to her serve for the remainder of the set to force a decider. In the third set, Samsonova broke Sabalenka in the fourth game but the Belarusian broke back in the seventh game. But just after getting a break back, Sabalenka lost her serve again in the eighth game as Samsonova served out for the match in the following game.