The best female tennis player in the world pulled out a dead match. Arina was saved by Russian swearing!

The future first racket of the world lost without a chance to American Madison Keys in the semifinals of the US Open. The stands rejoiced, Sabalenka did not succeed at all. It seemed that the outcome of the confrontation was predetermined, but the Belarusian, who, of course, was actively rooted for in Russia, performed a real miracle and turned the tide of the fight.

There was also some Russian swearing and a broken racket.

A nightmare start from Arina

Sabalenka is incredibly good this year. She consistently reaches at least the semifinals of big tournaments, and at the Australian Open the Belarusian managed to take the main trophy. A year ago, Arina already made it to the semifinals at the US Open, so you definitely shouldn’t be surprised at her success on American courts.

Nevertheless, even if the Belarusian was considered a favorite in the confrontation with Madison Keys, it was by a very small margin. The American seemed to restart her career this season. In the quarterfinals, she destroyed the winner of Wimbledon 2023, Czech Marketa Vondrousova, with a score of 6:1, 6:4. So no one promised Sabalenka an easy life.

But hardly anyone could have imagined that everything would be so bad for the Belarusian. In the first game, Arina lost her serve. In the third, she led 40-0 and managed to lose the advantage. At the same time, Keys held her serve steadily. As a result, the score in the first game was 6:0 in her favor. Madison only had half an hour to hang up the “steering wheel” of the future first racket of the world, which Sabalenka will become on September 11th.

Maddison Keys / Photo: © Robert Prange / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Russian swearing helped

At the beginning of the second game, the Belarusian finally took the first game of the match, but the American still took the lead – 2:1. And at that moment Arina simply freaked out. She broke the racket, threw it towards the coach and at the same time cursed very juicily, using Russian obscenities.

Probably, the emotional outburst helped Sabalenka. She immediately equalized the score, but then again gave away two games in a row and again resorted to obscene language. It worked the second time too! The Belarusian cheered up and somehow incredibly managed to take the game to a tiebreaker, where she easily defeated her opponent – 7:1.

Before the start of the third and decisive game, Keys took a medical break, during which doctors rewound her hip. However, tennis players often resort to such breaks to simply take a breath and gather their strength. For Madison, this was especially important, because the American, in front of her native audience, missed a real chance to reach the final of the Grand Slam tournament.

Arina Sobolenko / Photo: © Sarah Stier / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Outstanding match

Although there was still a chance, we just had to win exactly one set. And Keys almost succeeded again. She led with a score of 4:2, but then Sabalenka forced her opponent to make mistakes and sent the game to another tiebreaker. This time it was a championship, that is, it went to 10 points. It’s funny that Arina apparently forgot about this and began to rejoice when the score became 7:3 in her favor, thinking that she had already won.

I had to sweat a little more, although the final success and reaching the final of the US Open from the Belarusian did not disappear. Sabalenka gave a fantastic match, and the Belarusian and Russian fans spent a lot of nerves, but received great pleasure from the tennis player’s victory. In the final she will face another American, Cori Gauff.