Aryna Sabalenka has just won her third Grand Slam title and her first Major title outside the Australian Open after beating Jessica Pegula 7-5 7-5 in the US Open final.
Playing in her fourth Grand Slam final, the 26-year-old Belarusian showed some nerves but ultimately managed to get the job done in two sets after firing 40 winners in an hour and 53 minutes of play.
Throughout the final, there wasn’t much consistency on both sides but the difference was that the No. 2 seed came up big when it mattered the most.
Previously, Sabalenka won back-to-back Australian Open titles in 2023 and 2024 while she lost to Coco Gauff in last year’s US Open final. On the other side, 30-year-old Pegula was playing in her first Major final.
How Sabalenka beat Pegula?
The 6th-seeded American actually made a better start to the final, earning the first break in the third game for an early 2-1 lead. But it didn’t take long for the Belarusian tennis superstar to respond as she collected back-to-back breaks and won the next four games to overturn an early deficit and go 5-2 up.
Just when it started to seem that the momentum was fully on the second seed’s side, the world No. 6 managed to fully get back into the set after winning the next three games to tie the opener to five games apiece.
But then, another momentum swing happened after Pegula missed out on a break point in the 11th game and Sabalenka took a 6-5 lead before breaking the American in the following game to seal the first set.
At the start of the second set, the Belarusian also won the opening three games to push her run to five consecutive games and had a break point to go up by a set and a double break. In those moments, it looked like the No. 6 seed was definitely done. But then, the 30-year-old saved a break point in that game and then also won the next five games to go from 0-3 down to 5-3.
Once again, a complete swing happened as Sabalenka responded by winning the next four games and completing a straight-set win.