Despite being the world’s No. 1-ranked player for all of 2025, Aryna Sabalenka has yet to capture a Grand Slam singles title this year. After a controversy with reigning French Open champion Coco Gauff and a new incident at this year’s Wimbledon Championships, it seems that fact might be getting to the Belarusian tennis star.
On Thursday, the top-ranked Sabalenka fell short in the Wimbledon semifinals, losing to the No. 13-ranked Amanda Anisimova. With all due credit to Anisimova for advancing to her first-ever major final, to say that this was a huge upset would be an understatement. On paper, Sabalenka probably should’ve cruised to her second straight final of 2025. Alas, that didn’t happen.
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Given what initially happened with Gauff, a mid-match moment of Sabalenka seemingly scolding Anisimova got extra attention.
Why? A lip-reading says she wanted Anisimova to apologize for scoring a net cord point. I’m not exactly sure why any tennis player should apologize for that, so, honestly, Sabalenka kind of seems like a sore loser by even bringing it up:
In fairness to Sabalenka, she and Gauff did eventually ensure their little “beef” was water under the bridge. And in her post-match press conference on Thursday, Sabalenka made it a point to say she wouldn’t repeat her mistakes with Gauff at Roland-Garros while giving credit to Anisimova for the win. So, there could be some measure of personal growth happening here.
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Nonetheless, the mid-match lip-reading suggests Sabalenka could still use a lesson in good sportsmanship.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Aryna Sabalenka seemingly had another sore loser moment at Wimbledon
