French Open recap: Aryna Sabalenka's tennis evolution sees her through at Roland Garros

New York Times

2 days ago

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Welcome to the French Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
On day eight, a world No. 1 showed why she has evolved her game, a tale of three match points and
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka went into Sunday's meeting with Amanda Anisimova with a 2-5 head-to-head record, and having lost three of their four meetings on clay.
In theory, that put the American No. 16 seed at a pretty big advantage. But four of those five Anisimova wins came before Sabalenka had become a Grand Slam champion — and more importantly, the multi-faceted player she is now.
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Sabalenka offered a reminder of that evolution throughout a comfortable 7-5, 6-3 victory to reach the quarterfinals. Things got tight in the first set when Anisimova came back from 5-2 down to having a couple of break points at 5-5, but Sabalenka proved ultimately too good. She had too much variety for Anisimova, who could more or less match her power but lacks the kind of plan B that Sabalenka now has.
In the decisive game of the first set, with Anisimova serving at 5-6, Sabalenka used a drop shot to draw a missed forehand from her opponent for 15-15. Later in the game, Anisimova constructed a couple of points — one of them the break point from which Sabalenka ultimately took the set — with calmness and precision, dragging Sabalenka way out of position. On both of them, a high-margin drop shot would have been a safe way to end the point. But Anisimova only had another powerful groundstroke in her locker, and she missed them both and lost the set.
In her news conference afterwards, Sabalenka talked about the importance of keeping her opponent guessing. 'As much as I could, I tried to change the rhythm against her,' she said.
'I think I did it pretty well, and overall I stayed really aggressive. Those little moments (of variety) help me a lot to put extra pressure on her.' She'll play Zheng Qinwen for a place in the semifinals
Charlie Eccleshare
Every player who has taken a point when they know, deep down, that a chair umpire or a line judge has made the wrong call ought to take a look at some video from Carlos Alcaraz vs. Ben Shelton at Roland Garros.
Alcaraz didn't like a call on a Shelton serve during the first set. He complained to the chair umpire that the ball had ticked the net, but didn't get anywhere. Shelton offered to replay the point. Alcaraz turned him down.
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A set later it was Alcaraz's turn to live tennis etiquette in a way so few players do. Early in the second set, Shelton fired a passing shot at Alcaraz. Alcaraz lunged for it and somehow made the volley as his racket flew out of his hand. The chair umpire gave him the point. Alcaraz said no. He knew his racket had made contact with the ball after it left his hand. He gave Shelton the point.
Too much class from Carlitos, who gave the point to Ben Shelton after telling the chair umpire he did not have his racket in his hand when contact was made with the ball 👏#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/ctCh7Lrrmq
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 1, 2025
'I would have felt guilty I didn't say anything about that,' Alcaraz said. 'I have to be honest with myself and with everyone I play,'
He said that's what tennis is, or should be.
Stuff like this happens a lot in tennis. Here's a simple rule that would solve a lot of problems for players: Be cool.
Matt Futterman
For an encapsulation of how much more aggressively No. 13 seed Elina Svitolina plays these days, check out the third match point she saved against last year's runner-up, Jasmine Paolini.
Svitolina had already saved two match points. Serving down 4-5 in the second set, she got on the front foot in of them; in the other, Paolini went for broke and made an unforced error. The third was the toughest. The set had gone to a tiebreak, and Paolini was serving at 6-5. After seeing off the serve, Svitolina edged her way forward and then ripped a forehand up the line that Paolini could only float back in response. Svitolina, who had anticipated that kind of ball, knifed away a backhand winner to keep herself alive. Svitolina hit 37 winners in total in the match, and pinched the tiebreak 8-6 to level the match at one-set all.
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From there, she kept on attacking and cruised home 6-1 in the decider. Once considered a relatively safe player, Svitolina has dialled up the aggression and it's led to her playing some of the best tennis of her career. Paolini has seen it at closer quarters than most: Svitolina came back from a set down against her at this year's Australian Open, too, winning the final set there 6-0.
Next up for Svitolina is a quarterfinal Tuesday against the four-time champion Swiatek, who Svitolina beat at the same stage of Wimbledon two years ago.
For Paolini, this defeat will take a bit of getting over. 'I had my chances, and I didn't — I don't know, maybe one match point I could play better, but at the same time, she's a great player,' Paolini said in a post-match news conference.
'She played really well.'
Charlie Eccleshare
Iga Świątek is the only Roland Garros champion left in the draw… Or is she?
Świątek didn't win the last tennis final played on these clay courts: Zheng Qinwen did, beating Świątek on the way to Olympic gold in women's singles last summer. She remains the only player to beat Świątek here since 2021, and she walks the grounds with the swagger of a champion.
Zheng outlasted Liudmila Samsonova Sunday, to set up a quarterfinal with Sabalenka, the player she beat in Rome last month. There's no question this is her tennis happy place at the moment.
'I still remember how many times I fall on the ground last year,' she said after the Samsonova win, which she celebrated with the kind of backwards collapse normally associated with Grand Slam titles.
'Even me today I still remember the Olympic Games moment on court. I say to myself during the match, 'Keep fighting, just keep going on, don't look at the score, and let's see what's going to happen.''
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With that attitude and her recent memories of toppling Sabalenka for the first time in her career, Zheng may be a very tough out for the world No. 1.
Matt Futterman
Tell us what you noticed on the eighth day…
(Top photo of Aryna Sabalenka: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic)