Aryna Sabalenka fell on her back, overwhelmed, in the roaring Arthur Ashe Stadium and cheered wildly: The 26-year-old from Belarus has perfected her personal hard court double strike and followed up the successful title defense in Melbourne with a coup at the US Open.
The world number two won the final in New York on Saturday evening with 7:5, 7:5 against local hero Jessica Pegula and lived up to her role as tournament favorite.
Sabalenka, for whom this is her third major triumph, is only the fifth player to win the trophies in Australia and the USA in one season. Previously, Steffi Graf (1988, 89) and Angelique Kerber (2016) had also achieved this. Pegula, who made it past the quarterfinals at a major for the first time, will have to wait for a major coup.
Last year, Sabalenka had already made a run for the title in New York, but suffered a surprise defeat in the final against Coco Gauff and then took out her frustration on her racket in the dressing room. Now, as she did recently in Cincinnati, she prevailed in the duel between the two hard court specialists.
The men’s final will be contested on Sunday evening (8 p.m./Sky and Sportdeutschland.TV) by the Italian world number one Jannik Sinner and the American Taylor Fritz.
Pegula fights, but ultimately loses
Sabalenka had caused a stir in the run-up to the final with a statistic: her whipped forehand was measured as the fastest of the tournament – for men and women. At 129 kilometers per hour, she also outdid the men’s stars Carlos Alcaraz (127 km/h) and Jannik Sinner (126 km/h). And Sabalenka also used her signature shot against Pegula, who, with the support of the crowd, had big plans.
At 30 years and 196 days old, she wanted to be only the third player to win her first Grand Slam tournament over the age of 30 since the introduction of professional tennis in 1968. Ann Jones had previously achieved this in 1969 at Wimbledon and Flavia Pennetta in 2015 in New York. But it wasn’t enough.
The US hopeful, whose father Terry Pegula owns the NFL team Buffalo Bills and the NHL franchise Buffalo Sabres, said she felt “pretty good” before the first serve and resolved not to let her emotions get the better of her in the special atmosphere. A lot of stars such as US basketball player Stephen Curry, Formula 1 icon Lewis Hamilton and Olympic sprint champion Noah Lyles also watched in the legendary arena and saw a high-class match.
Pegula started stronger and gave Sabalenka a powerful exchange of blows from the baseline. Then the Belarusian turned up the heat and took control, but towards the end of the first set she showed nerves again. Sabalenka was able to let her arm run even more, feeling that she had achieved an interim victory. But Pegula came back again, but could not prevent the painful defeat.
Source: www.sport.de
