Jan 25, 2025; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Aryna Sabalenka after losing the match against Madison Keys of United States of America in the final of the women's singles at the 2025 Australian Open at Melbourne Park.

tennis

“Shut the F**k Up”: Aryna Sabalenka Forced to Silence Italian Open Heckler During Zheng Qinwen Loss

Zheng broke Sabalenka’s winning streak in Rome.

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shock defeat at the hands of reigning Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen at the 2025 Italian Open on Wednesday. The 22-year-old Chinese sensation produced one of the best performances of her season thus far to oust Sabalenka 6-4 6-3. During the loss, Sabalenka lost her cool at a rogue heckler on Centre Court.

This happened to be the seventh meeting between Sabalenka and Qinwen – the latter of the two had never beaten her three-time Grand Slam winning opponent before. Sabalenka’s biggest win against Qinwen was in the final of the 2024 Australian Open. On Wednesday however, the World No. 8 pulled off an upset of epic proportions to marginally improve the head to head record to 1-6.

Sabalenka entered the Internazionali BNL d’Italia as the top seed. She was on a 9-match winning run and looked set to win her first trophy at the Italian capital. Unfortunately, it was an off-colour evening for the Belarusian, who looked fatigued and out of ideas to counter Zheng’s strong groundstrokes. The Chinese No. 1 believes that the surface and her acknowledgement that Sabalenka is just another normal player benefited her.

WATCH: Sabalenka Hits Back at Disrespectful Fan at Italian Open 2025

After losing the opener, Sabalenka was broken again in the very first game of the second set. This was when a moment of frustration resulted in a code violation for the defending US Open champion. Just as Qinwen was about to serve at 30-0, someone from the crowd yelled, “Come on Aryna – play tennis!” Sabalenka was having none of it, and made sure to dish out a fitting reply.

Aryna Sabalenka responds to someone who shouted out in the crowd during her match against Qinwen Zheng in Rome

“Come on Aryna, play tennis”

Aryna: “Shut the f*** up” 💀💀

pic.twitter.com/zWNKpyzcXP
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 14, 2025

“Shut the f**k up,” said the 27-year-old. A code violation and warning for verbal obscenity was quick to follow as Sabalenka’s words were loud and clear on Campo Centrale. While the Belarusian attempted a fight back, it was not her day. She failed to convert any of the break points that she generated during the course of the encounter.

Sabalenka will now head to Roland Garros, where she will fight for the title as the top seed. With defending champion Iga Swiatek looking out of form and dropping crucial ranking points, this might be the best opportunity for the World No. 1 to dethrone the queen of Paris. The 2025 Roland Garros begins on May 25.

Aryna Sabalenka

Coco Gauff

Italian Open

Rome Masters

Tennis

WTA

WTA 1000

Zheng Qinwen

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.