The 2023 French Open is halfway through and has practically set the stage for the thrilling clashes between renowned names on both the ATP and the WTA Tours. Recently, a spectacular head-to-head match between Sloane Stephens and Aryna Sabalenka, the second-ranked tennis player in the world, took place. It was quite an intense encounter in which the 30-year-old actually battled back to force a tiebreaker in the first set. But she eventually lost the set, and the match. After the loss, the American tennis player shared an emotional message to her followers, who supported her during her incredible French Open run.

Sloane Stephens’ emotional message after her fourth-round defeat 

The 30-year-old American tennis player is very confident when it comes to competing on clay courts. But after facing a lot of ups and downs in this year’s clay season, Stephens found Sabalenka’s challenge too tough. In spite of this, she posted a message of gratitude to all of her supporters who helped support her during her clay-court trip.

She took to her Instagram account to share some pictures of herself from the Grand Slam tournament.

Stephens wrote, “Grateful for all of the support! The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions, but I am truly happy with my tennis and proud of myself for being able to find my fight again! Time to take a little rest and reset, and we’ll be back at it,” followed by a heart emoji and a strength emoji.

Not only that, she also expressed how she is quite happy with herself and the way she performed during the whole clay-court season, especially during her comeback grand slam, the French Open.

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However, earlier before this gratitude-filled message, her clash with the world number two ranked tennis player also grabbed a lot of attention. That too in such a way, that it was seen as one of the biggest news of the tournament to date.

Aryna Sabalenka ditches the press conference 

The clay court championships in Paris has been marred by a number of controversies, beginning with the Indonesian-Japanese double pair receiving a default. Following that, the world No. 2 tennis player consciously avoided the post-match press conference after winning the match in the fourth round.

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Sabalenka, who won her 33rd straight match, skipped the customary post-match press conference in favor of a selective interview. And during her selective interview, she explained why she didn’t feel comfortable in the standard press conference. Previously, she was questioned about her support of the current President of Belarus, raising several eyebrows in the process.