Keystone
Number 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka triumphs at the US Open for the first time. In the final, the Belarusian won a spectacular duel 7:5, 7:5 against the American Jessica Pegula.
After two victories at the Australian Open, Sabalenka also secured her first title at the second Grand Slam tournament of the year on hard court. Pegula, the world number 6, made her debut in the final and put in a strong performance to upset the favorite. In the end, however, she won the important points and the match after 1:53 hours.
Sabalenka showed that she had learned from her bitter experience last year, when she let the raucous crowd in New York upset her in the final against local player Coco Gauff. This time, the 26-year-old from Minsk held her nerve in the decisive moments.
With the roof closed due to rain, Sabalenka found the ideal conditions for her power tennis, but Pegula held firm. The Belarusian quickly took a 5:2 lead, but the American, who is four years older, fought back and even had a break chance at 6:5, which she was unable to take. Immediately afterwards, she gave up her own serve and immediately found herself trailing 0:3 in her weakest phase of the second set.
Pegula rallied again and won five games in a row. However, she did not manage to take the match into a third set. On her second match point, she committed the decisive error under pressure. It was her 22nd, but many of them were forced rather than easy.
Sabalenka, however, dominated the rallies with her powerful shots from the baseline, but also showed a clear improvement in her forward play. She committed 34 unforced errors, but also hit 40 winners and won 18 out of 23 points at the net. The reward is prize money of 3.6 million dollars and her third Grand Slam title overall.
Sabalenka joins an astonishing series. Since Serena Williams’ sixth and final US Open triumph in 2014, there have been nine different winners in ten editions, the only two-time triumphant being Naomi Osaka in 2018 and 2020. Sabalenka is also only the fifth player to win both hard court majors in the same year since the Australian Open switched from grass to hard court. Her illustrious predecessors are Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Angelique Kerber in 2016.
SDA
