On Saturday, No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka defeated No. 8 Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-6 in the women's singles final to win the US Open for the second straight year. It is Sabalenka's fourth grand slam title overall and her second US Open title. Her other two grand slam titles have come at the Australian Open in 2023 & 2024, so she's quickly establishing herself as the top hard court player in the world.
Sabalenka had an amazing two weeks of tennis in New York, only dropping one set the entire way (4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals vs. No. 4 Jessica Pegula). She was also aided by a walkover victory over Marketa Vondrousova in the quarterfinals, so she really cruised to this title. That isn't to say she didn't get challenged at all. In four of her matches, she had a set that she had to win with the 7th game, three of which went to a tiebreaker. But still, the reality is she showed why she is the top player in the world, especially on hard court.
While her 25 aces weren't the most in the tournament (Naomi Osaka crushed that stat with 43), Sabalenka really dominated with her second serve, ranking 6th in the tournament in second serve win percentage (55%). She also had a large sample size with 162 second serve points, winning 89 of them. The old saying you're only as good as your second serve rang true with Sabalenka. She was rock solid in that department.
The other thing Sabalenka did a great job of was finding ways to win in crunch time. She was 3-0 in tiebreakers, winning all three by a collective score of 21-9. She was dominant in those tiebreakers, shutting the door and not allowing her opponents to have any life. That speaks to her mental strength and fortitude.
For Sabalenka, this was a huge tournament for her to win given she didn't win the Australian Open this year. Hard court is her bread and butter and so to come out on top in the final hard court slam of the year has to feel good. While she still needs to figure out how to win grand slams on clay and grass, if she can get the hard court slams on lock down, she should be able to have an iron clad grip on the world number one ranking for the foreseeable future.
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