Aryna Sabalenka walked into her press room on Wednesday night and chose honesty.

A reporter asked the 28-year-old what she would tell herself if she were her own coach. Sabalenka paused.

“Mm. What a f***ing loser,” she said, according to Yahoo Sports, before bursting into laughter. “No, um, just keep going. You’re doing okay. If things didn’t go well today, it doesn’t mean that tomorrow it’s going to be the same.”

It was a round-robin loss, not a final. It looked like neither.

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11 games, 62 minutes

Sabalenka had led 4-1 against the 19-year-old Mirra Andreeva in the opening set in Riyadh. She did not win another game. Andreeva took the final 11 in a row, closing out the first 6-4 and bagelling the second 6-0 in 62 minutes of near-flawless baseline tennis.

Andreeva served 82 percent on first deliveries and struck five aces. Sabalenka hit none.

On the collapse itself, Sabalenka pointed to rhythm rather than the tape she had worn above her right knee. “I have no idea right now, but I have to say that she played great tennis; that’s for sure. And I was just, like, struggling with my rhythm,” she told reporters.

Andreeva gives herself an eight

If Sabalenka was brutal with the microphone, Andreeva was almost as hard on herself in the other direction. The teenager refused to call the performance a 10.

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“I would give myself a good eight,” Andreeva said in her post-match interview, per Tennis Majors. “It’s still like, to earn a 10, you have to play the best match of your life.”

She credited coach Conchita Martinez for the pre-match talk and said she still had fuel left in the tank after the hammering.

Andreeva climbs past Sabalenka in the rankings

The win carried a ranking consequence. Andreeva moved past Sabalenka in the WTA live rankings, up to world No. 2 on 6,706 points, with Sabalenka slipping to third on 6,685, Tennis365 reported. The gap between them is 21 points.

Svitolina on Friday for the last semifinal spot

Andreeva topped Group 2 and advanced to the semifinals with a match to spare. Sabalenka’s route is narrower but still open: she faces Elina Svitolina later on Friday in Riyadh, with the winner taking the remaining semifinal berth.

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“The good news is that I still have my chance to qualify for the semis,” Sabalenka told reporters.

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