Aryna Sabalenka irked by two moments in her Wimbledon semi-final defeat

Aryna Sabalenka made a conscious effort to be a gracious loser at Wimbledon, but still took a swipe at new finalist Amanda Anisimova.

World number one and title favourite Sabalenka was beaten 6-4 4-6 6-4 by the 23-year-old American Anisimova in a dramatic Centre Court semi-final.

So she breezed into Wimbledon’s media theatre giggling and said: “You’re not going to see a Roland Garros press conference, so anyone who was waiting for that, you can leave right now!”

She added: “I just don’t want to face that hate again. I mean, we’re all people. We all can lose control over our emotions. It’s absolutely normal.

“Even right now I took a bit more time before doing my media just so I can be Aryna, not that crazy person that was on that media day at Roland Garros.”

Nevertheless, a couple of incidents did irk the 27-year-old. The first was a point at 2-3 in the second set when Anisimova seemed to loudly celebrate a winner before the ball was past Sabalenka, which could have been called hindrance by the umpire.

“I was just trying to chase the ball. Yeah, she was already celebrating it. I was, like, I mean, that’s a bit too early,” she said.

“Then she kind of p****d me off saying that, ‘oh, that’s what she does all the time’.”

Anisimova, who will face Iga Swiatek in Saturday’s final, responded: “I don’t really know what was the deal there, to be honest, because I didn’t feel like it was that interfering. But yeah, I tried to not do it again.”

Then, with Sabalenka 2-4 down in the third, the 13th seed did not apologise after a groundstroke, which may have been floating wide, clipped the net cord and landed in.

Sabalenka added: “I just looked at her and, I mean, for sure she didn’t hear me. I was like, ‘you don’t want to say sorry?’ She just wanted, I guess, badly to win this match.

But it is hard to paint Anisimova, who is a keen artist, as the villain of the piece.

Anisimova, who reached her only other grand slam semi-final six years ago in Paris as a 17-year-old, took an eight-month break from the sport in 2023 to prioritise her mental health.

She said: “I think that’s a really special message that I think I’ve been able to show because when I took my break, a lot of people told me that you would never make it to the top again.”