‘I understand why some people think I’m a bitch’: world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka on screaming, stunt matches, and why she’s much nicer off court

Photograph: Emmie America/The GuardianView image in fullscreen Photograph: Emmie America/The GuardianInterview‘I understand why some people think I’m a bitch’: world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka on screaming, stunt matches, and why she’s much nicer off courtSimon HattenstoneLast month she had a post-defeat meltdown and insisted she was done with tennis. On the eve of Wimbledon, she talks about what really happened – and why her ‘aggressive’ face gives people the wrong impressionIt’s less than a month since Aryna Sabalenka told the world that she felt like walking away from tennis. The world No 1 had suffered an almighty implosion.

Sabalenka is as famous for her implosions as she is for her on-court ferocity. But this was a different level.She had been playing at her imperious best in the French Open, one of tennis’s four major tournaments.

Winner after winner from the back of the court, and when she bullied her opponents back to the baseline she’d dupe them with the most delicate drop-shot. In the last 16 against Naomi Osaka she looked invincible. And then came the quarter-final.

By now, all her main rivals were out. The 28-year-old had a clear path through to winning her fifth grand slam singles title. Again, she was playing well against the world’s No 25, Diana Shnaider.

Sabalenka won the first set easily, 6-3, and was 5-3 up in the second set. Victory was an inevitability. And then it happened.

One game lost. Then another. And another.

The wind had picked up, playing conditions got ever worse, the organisers failed to close the roof. And Sabalenka was walloping shot after shot out of court.By now Sabalenka was fighting herself as much as her opponent and the wind.

She screamed at her coaching team in frustration, as she so often does. But the abuse she levelled at herself was even harsher. Eventually she lost 10 games on the trot against a player few non-tennis aficionados had heard of.

Shnaider won the final two sets 7-5 and 6-0. When she finally addressed the press, Sabalenka was still in a state of shock. “I just want to quit tennis right now,” she said, admitting that she had fallen into a “deep, dark hole”.

In the same tournament, the world men’s No 1 player, Jannik Sinner, had suffered a comparable fate, but he was physically unwell. This was different. It was one of the great collapses in tennis history.

But perhaps what was most astonishing was that it was also not entirely surprising. We have learned to expect the unexpected with Aryna Sabalenka. Implosions, explosions, offensive comments, scandal-hit relationships, accusations of gamesmanship, allegations of undermining the women’s game, reconciliatory on-court dances – the Belarusian is always just a few shots from the next controversy.

Today, she’s in Berlin and we chat by video link ahead of Wimbledon, the next grand slam in the calendar. The Paris meltdown is still raw, but it’s not a topic she wants to avoid. If anything, she’d prefer to talk it out of her system.

The funny thing is, she says, she waited for ages before addressing the press to make sure she’d regained control. She grins. “I actually took an hour and a half before doing that press conference and I thought, like, OK, I’m better now.

And then I just went there and I said, ‘I want to quit tennis!’”Did she come away, thinking, “My God, what did I just say?” Another smile.

“No. Actually I thought I’d been pretty good.” Really?

“Yes. What d’you expect me to say if you ask me how I feel at a moment like that? ‘I feel great, I feel fantastic.’

” Of course not. Sabalenka is Sabalenka. She’s always going to tell it straight.

“I went there and I said the facts. Why would they keep the roof open when the conditions are insane? When it’s almost like a hurricane and the tennis was ugly?

I said everything that makes sense. I respected my opponent. I wasn’t rude to her or anything.

I didn’t want to go there and say something ridiculous like I said last year.”Ah, last year. Another implosion – and another explosion.

This time the implosion was in the final of the French Open against the American Coco Gauff. She had been one set up against the American, and went on to lose by two sets to one. The real drama happened after the match, again in the press conference.

Sabalenka said it was the “worst final I ever played”, adding: “I think she won the match not because she played incredible, just because I made all of those mistakes.” It was ugly, graceless and disrespectful.Sabalenka tells me it was so much worse than anything that happened in Paris this year.

She felt ashamed of herself. “That was tough. When the emotions settled, I just came to my team saying, ‘Guys, can you believe I said that?’

I felt so mean and I felt not like myself.” So what did she do? “I waited a bit of time and then I messaged Coco apologising and saying that of course I respect her.

Coco’s such a nice girl. I got lucky, because she understands that. I feel like if ever she goes nuts on me, I’ll be, like, ‘Girl, throw it on me.