Aryna Sabalenka beats American Jessica Pegula to win US Open with dominant display in New York
Finally, the Tiger reigns supreme in the concrete jungle. After two semi-final defeats and that painful loss to Coco Gauff in last year’s final, Aryna Sabalenka finally got her hands on the US Open trophy.
Last year it was the New York crowd, but also Gauff, who supported Sabalenka. But against Jessica Pegula, another American, she handled the situation much better and won 7-5, 7-5.
This is her third Grand Slam title, after two Australian Opens, and at 26, Sabalenka is developing into a truly complete player.
Iga Swiatek may be the world No. 1, but apart from her title at Roland Garros, Sabalenka is the favourite to start the other three Grand Slams in 2025.
Modern tennis unfortunately has few nicknames, but Sabalenka has a tattoo of a tiger on her left forearm. With her awesome power and blood-curdling roar, that’s exactly what she’s looking for.
Aryna Sabalenka won the US Open by beating American Jessica Pegula in three sets
Sabalenka paid tribute to defeated finalist Pegaula, who was cheered on by the home crowd
Sabalenka fell to the ground after winning her first US Open title on Saturday night
A Grand Slam tradition is that Sabalenka signs coach Jason Stacy’s bald head after each victory. For the final, they went one step further, with Stacy showing up with a matching tiger tattoo on his head – I hope to God it’s not permanent.
But what a job Stacy, Sabalenka and the rest of the team have done over the past year or so. Always a fearsome talent, Sabalenka has been erratic and emotionally volatile in the past.
She kept her head in the game even as Pegula came back from a 3-0 deficit to a 5-3 lead in the second set.
She added so much to her game and it was her ability to change the speed of a point with a slice, hit a surprise drop shot or storm the net that made the difference in this match.
A leaping overhead backhand that would have made fellow Tiger Tim Henman proud helped her turn the tide and mount a counterattack as Pegula served for the second set.
This leveled the score (5-5) and Sabalenka quickly took the victory.
She burst into tears and blew a kiss on the field, where there were more near misses than ever before in her career.
She then sent a kiss to heaven for her father, who passed away in 2019. Her ex-boyfriend, Konstantin Koltsov, also committed suicide in Miami in March of this year.
Pegula did extremely well, but such is the power of Sabalenka’s game and the magnetism of her personality that her opponent can seem like a spectator at the one-woman show. The match rests on her racket; the energy of the match pulses to her pounding heartbeat.