US Open 2024: Aryna Sabalenka beats nerves, injuries and pressure to claim first title - 'I never gave up on this dream'

Published 08/09/2024 at 10:38 GMT

New US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka described her third Grand Slam title as "always a dream" as she overcame a history of tough losses in New York to defeat Jessica Pegula 7-5 7-5. The Belarusian is now only the fifth woman in the Open era to win the double of hard-court majors in the same year, and her triumph at Flushing Meadows comes after a season rocked by injury and personal struggles.

Sabalenka beats Pegula in straight sets to lift first US Open trophy

Aryna Sabalenka's long history of heartache at the US Open came to an end on Saturday night, and the Belarusian was overcome with emotion at seeing a lifelong dream fulfilled.

The second seed added a third Grand Slam title to go with her pair of Australian Open trophies, and underlined her status as the best hard-court player in the world.

She triumphed 7-5 7-5 in a high-quality tussle with home favourite Jessica Pegula, putting to bed memories of her three-set loss to Coco Gauff in last year's showpiece.

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The world No. 2 lost from a set up in 2023 and said that the experience was in the back of her mind as she took to Arthur Ashe Stadium once more.

"I thought that I will be thinking a lot about previous years here, because I had a lot of tough lessons here, especially the last year," she said.

"Today I just keep reminding myself that this is the US Open final, of course she’s going to fight really hard for it and it’s not going to be easy, and I have to work really hard to get it.

"In those tough moments, I was just trying to stay strong and trying to remind myself that I have been through a lot and I’m strong enough to hold under this pressure."

Sabalenka has been liable to falter under pressure before with the sport's biggest prizes on the line, and has worked doggedly to overcome nerves and previous issues with her game breaking down, particularly a tendency towards double faults.

She let slip a 4-2 lead in the deciding set in her semi-final against Iga Swiatek in 2022, with the Pole going on to lift the trophy, and suffered a similar collapse in the final last year as the partisan crowd got into her head.

But even as momentum swung away from her in her final against Pegula, particularly as she tumbled from 3-0 up to 5-3 down in the second set, Sabalenka was able to wrestle back control of the match and power into the history books.

She has now overtaken Victoria Azarenka as the Belarusian with the most Grand Slam titles and becomes just the fifth woman in the Open era to win both hard-court majors in the same season.

With her huge serve and enormous power, she has become the premier player on the surface, losing just one of her past 28 matches and winning the Cincinnati title en route to victory in New York.

Highlights: Sabalenka and Pegula battle through to set up US Open final

But 2024 has also been a difficult year for the 26-year-old, who was rocked by the death of her former partner, Konstantin Koltsov, in March. She did not take a break from playing but circumstances conspired against her as a shoulder injury forced her to miss Wimbledon.

"I faced a lot of challenges on and off the court," she said. "The difficult one was also being injured and not able to play Wimbledon. It was [a] new experience for me.

"I was always hoping that one day I'll be able to hold this beautiful trophy. It's been always my dream. That's why it's very special, because no matter what, every time I was coming back stronger, and I was learning, I never gave up on this dream."

Sabalenka has also been open about her drive to honour her father Sergey's memory, after he died in 2019.

“After I lost my father, it’s always been my goal to put our family name in the history of tennis," she said.

"Every time I see my name on that trophy, I’m so proud of myself, I’m proud of my family that they never gave up on my dream and that they were doing everything they could to keep me going."

Sabalenka returned to action on the American hard-court swing appearing more relaxed after her troubled summer. At the Australian Open in January, she wrote her signature on fitness trainer Jason Stacy's head before each match, while in New York, Stacy appeared in her box at the final with a replica of her tiger tattoo on his head.

She said afterwards that Stacy had promised to wear the temporary tattoo - a gift from a young fan at the Washington tournament - if she reached the final, while several other members of her team wore small tiger tattoos on their arms.

"I'm really curious what's going to be next, Jason," Sabalenka added. "I was about to say he would color his hair. Like pink or purple hair, why not?"

Sabalenka 'puts family name in history of tennis' after withstanding 'crazy level' of Pegula

PEGULA "JUST ANNOYED" AT FINAL LOSS

While Sabalenka was riding high after achieving her third major title, it was a different story for Pegula, who confessed to feeling too "annoyed" at having lost to take in the positives from her performance.

"I'm just annoyed I lost right now. Everyone is like, 'congrats, amazing tournament.' I'm like, 'eh, whatever," she said afterwards, although she was also able to laugh at the situation.

"I think maybe once I decompress a little bit, I'm sure I will be a little bit more appreciative and see all of that at some point.

"It's been kind of a crazy couple of days, so hopefully I'll get some time after this to just relax and look back at what I've been able to do the last month."

Regardless of the outcome, it has been a stunning breakthrough tournament for Pegula, who, along with Sabalenka, was one of the in-form players arriving in New York.

The 30-year-old defended her Canadian Open title last month and reached the Cincinnati Open final, where she suffered another loss to Sabalenka.

She then backed up those WTA 1000 runs by reaching her first Grand Slam semi-final, defeating world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the process.

Pegula too 'annoyed' to see positives after defeat to Sabalenka in US Open final

Pegula's clean hitting has seen the sixth seed rise up the rankings and she had long been tipped to reach the latter stages of a major. But despite her promise, this was the first time she broke her 'quarter-final curse', having lost in that round six times across the four Grand Slams.

The New York native, who was backed by a raucous, nearly 23,000-strong home crowd inside Arthur Ashe, said she would - eventually - be able to take a lot of confidence from her appearance in the showpiece.

"To to be able to be a Grand Slam finalist, I think that was kind of the last thing for me. I made a lot of quarter-finals but can I make a semi, can I be a contender to actually win a Grand Slam?

"Looking back, I've lost again to a really good player. I lost to girls that pretty much won the tournament every time. I know my level was right there.

"I think maybe I handled the moment a little bit better this year, with just having maybe a different perspective of I had a rough start to the year and I didn't really expect to be doing this well in the hard court swing, and I was able to kind of flip that script."

The US Open can often see upsets coming at the end of a long and gruelling season, and with the addition of the Olympic Games this year, the calendar was even more compressed.

Olympic finalists Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz both suffered early exits at Flushing Meadows following their Paris exploits, but Pegula - who was knocked out in the second round there in both singles and doubles - said she felt less exhausted than normal when arriving in New York.

"Beginning of the year I would say I was burnt out," she said. "Then I think, coming into this swing, I do feel fresher. I think usually [by the] US Open, everything is kind of falling apart. A lot of girls are like that. I feel like the doctors and the physios are very busy here.

"Actually, this year I felt a lot better. And I think with the amount of matches I've played since Paris, with the travel and the schedule, I've actually felt pretty good. I think that's a really good sign of my fitness and just kind of getting back to normal than what I felt this year."

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