Jul 4, 2025; Wimbledon, United Kingdom; Aryna Sabalenka during her match against Emma Raducanu of Great Britain on day five at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

tennis

“Book the Tickets”: Aryna Sabalenka Makes Cheeky Revelation on Nearly Giving Up vs Laura Siegemund at Wimbledon 2025

Sabalenka awaits the winner of Anisimova vs Pavlyuchenkova in the SF.

Jul 4, 2025; Wimbledon, United Kingdom; Aryna Sabalenka during her match against Emma Raducanu of Great Britain on day five at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

World No. 1 Aryan Sabalenka showed the world why she has the tiger tattooed on her arm, on Tuesday. The three-time Grand Slam champion battled past World No. 104 Laura Siegemund of Germany to produce a come-from-behind 4-6 6-2 6-4 win in just under three hours. Sabalenka is through to the Wimbledon 2025 semifinal, where she will face either Anisimova or Pavlyuchenkova. After the match, Sabalenka revealed how she was ready to pack her bags and leave London midway.

It was a disastrous start for the top seed, who hadn’t dropped a set en route to the QF stage. Siegemund went up a double break, before the Belarusian settled into the contest. As both players traded blows, the 37-year-old German finally held her nerve to close out the first set 6-4. In the second set, the defending US Open champion began winning the 50-50 games.

Reducing the number of unforced errors and staying in the rallies for longer proved to be the magical code for Sabalenka. She dominated Siegemund to send the match into a decider. However, the lack of patience returned to haunt her in the deciding set. The unseeded veteran, a former Grand Slam and Olympic quarterfinalist, kept breaking serve and racing ahead.

“She Pushed Me So Much”: Sabalenka

Aryna Sabalenka after beating Siegemund to reach Wimbledon SF

“I need some time to cool down and recover. She pushed me so much. After the first set I was looking at my box like ‘Guys, book the tickets. We’re about to leave this beautiful city.’” 😭 pic.twitter.com/zepFly1X66
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) July 8, 2025

While the scoreline kept giving her a reality check, the fighting spirit in Sabalenka never died. Siegemund played a masterful game on Tuesday – varying her drives, slices and drops. She kept the World No. 1 on her toes and did not let her take control of the encounter. But at 4-5, the German played a poor service game to concede the game and match. As Sabalenka huffed and puffed after completing a narrow win, Centre Court stood up to applaud one of the great grass court performances by Laura Siegemund.

“That was a real task,” said the now three-time Wimbledon semifinalist. “Honestly, I need some time to cool down and recover after this match. She pushed me so much. After the first set, I was just looking at my box thinking, ‘book the tickets – we are about to leave this beautiful city, country, place.’ But she played an incredible tournament, an incredible match. I’m just super happy with the win.”

10 – Aryna Sabalenka is the second player since 2000 to reach 10 Women’s Singles Grand Slam semi-finals in a span of 11 consecutive appearances in such events, after Serena Williams. Streak.#Wimbledon | @Wimbledon @WTA pic.twitter.com/WGTKE2IF3y
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) July 8, 2025

Can Sabalenka go all the way and capture her first crown at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships? It’s five hurdles down, two to go for the tigress from Belarus.

(Image Credits: Geoff Burke, Imagn Images)

Aryna Sabalenka

Laura Siegemund

Tennis

Wimbledon

Wimbledon 2025

WTA

Sankalp Harikrishnan

A passionate sports fan through and through, I am currently pursuing my MA in Global Sports Journalism. I specialise in tennis and football writing at The Playoffs News, and I have prior experience working at EssentiallySports and Sportskeeda. Born and raised in Bengaluru, India, sport was my safe space right from my childhood. After trying my hand at multiple sports and representing my educational institutions in cricket, badminton and table tennis, I found sports media to be my calling.