Andy Roddick and Aryna Sabalenka shared a funny moment after the American tennis legend funnily told the Belarusian that she ruined his Wimbledon prediction because he picked her as the winner but then she withdrew from the tournament.
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After successfully defending her Australian Open title at the start of the year and making a couple of deep runs during the clay season, the new world No. 1 was widely expected to be among the top favorites for the Wimbledon title because she was in form and it was a surface that perfectly suited her game.
But then, the 26-year-old sustained a shoulder injury during her Berlin round-of-16 match against Anna Kalinskaya. Even though Sabalenka retired from that match, the expectations was that she would not be forced to miss Wimbledon.
And after the Belarusian arrived to The Championships, it definitely looked like she was ready to play. However, the optimism surrounding that quickly changed after she revealed in her pre-tournament presser that she was dealing with "a rare shoulder injury called teres major" and that she may pull out of the tournament. Exactly that happened.
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With that happening, Roddick's prediction of Sabalenka facing American Jessica Pegula in the Wimbledon final instantly became a wrong one.
"I have Sabalenka beating Pegula in the final," the 2003 US Open champion said at the time.
Roddick, Sabalenka joke about the situation
The three-time Grand Slam champion joined the 42-year-old American in the latest episode of his podcast. And funnily, he didn't want to miss out on the chance to remind her that his Wimbledon pick blatantly failed after she withdrew late from The Championships.
"I do have a bone to pick with you. I was angry with you for, you didn't even know this because we don't know each other. I was angry with you earlier this year. We have to get a preview show for Wimbledon out. I'm like okay, well I know who I think is going to win, it was pretty obvious to me at that point and then screw it if you didnt pull out six hours after I made my call," Roddick told the Belarusian.
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Sabalenka took it in a light way and hilariously remarked that he should probably avoid picking her to make Grand Slam finals in the future.
"Im so sorry. But you know, thank you so much for picking me. Probably for the next Grand Slams can you dont pick us so we make it to the final? Thats a deal," she said.
What Sabalenka said about her injury at the time?
When explaining to reporters how it felt to be dealing with that kind of a shoulder injury, Sabalenka looked annoyed and she explained in detail why. According to the 26-year-old, she was able to hit pretty much every shot without any problems except her serve. Also, she had no issues hitting the gym and lifting weighths. To sum it up, she could do everything except one thing - and that one thing was causing her big pain.
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Its teres major. Like, shoulder. For someone who doesnt speak very well English, I call it just shoulder injury. Its really a specific injury, and its really a rare one. Probably Im just the second or the third tennis player who injured that muscle," Sabalenka said at Wimbledon.
Its a very frustrating one. The most annoying thing is that I can do anything. I can practice, I can hit my groundstrokes. Im struggling with serving. Thats really annoying. You dont feel like youre injured. If you give me some weights, Im going to go lift some weights. But if you tell me to serve, Im going to go through pain. We did an MRI, we did everything. We did a lot of rehab, a lot of treatments and everything.
I still have my hopes. As someone who been fighting through a lot of different pains in the past months, I still have my hopes. I still have my hopes. As someone who been fighting through a lot of different pains in the past months, I still have my hopes.
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Then, she was directly asked if she could miss Wimbledon.
"There is always a chance, yeah;" she answered.
After being forced to skip Wimbledon, Sabalenka bounced back by winning her first US Open and landing her third overall Major. Since then, the Belarusian tennis star also won the WTA 1000 tournaments in Cincinnati and Wuhan, as well as beat out Iga Swiatek for the Year-End No. 1 award.
At the WTA Finals, the world No. 1 didn't manage to win her first title at the season-ending event after losing to Coco Gauff in the semifinal. But afterward, Sabalenka noted that she was extremely with her success in 2024.
