NEW YORK – Moments after winning her third Grand Slam singles title and her first at the U.S. Open, Aryna Sabalenka fell to the ground and covered her face with her hands.
She had just defeated American Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 on Saturday in front of a partisan and star-studded crowd under the roof of Arthur Ashe Stadium.
It was a markedly different scene from a year ago, when Sabalenka squandered a one-set lead in the US Open final against Coco Gauff, another American, to walk away with the runner-up trophy. And even the two years before that, when she lost in the semifinals in 2021 and 2022.
No. 2 seed Sabalenka, a 26-year-old Belarusian, couldn’t resist acknowledging her past as she addressed the crowd during the awards ceremony.
“Oh my God. I’m speechless right now,” Sabalenka said. “So many times I thought I was so close to winning a US Open title. It was a dream of mine. I finally got this beautiful trophy. It means a lot to me.”
Sabalenka was playing her 100th career major match and became the sixth woman to win the US Open after losing in the final the previous year, and the first since Serena Williams in 2012.
In addition, she reached fourth place among active WTA players for most Grand Slam singles titles, only Venus Williams (7), Iga Swiatek (5) and Naomi Osaka (4) are better.
Sabalenka had to step up her game and level as the match progressed, with both players taking control at different points. Sabalenka quickly took a 5-2 lead in the opening set before Pegula found her rhythm and delivered the next three games.
But when the set was tied at 5-5, it was Sabalenka who came back into the swing of things. She won the next five games, took the set and took a 3-0 lead in the second set.
But Pegula, playing in her first major final, wasn’t done fighting yet. The No. 6 seed went on a five-game run and a deciding set seemed all but certain. But Pegula couldn’t quite finish the job. At 5-4, she served and let Sabalenka break to level the set.
“I was kind of preparing for the third set. (I thought) at least something like, ‘You’re going to serve confidently in the third set,’ and then I held my serve. I put her under so much pressure in that service game at 5-4 and I’m really happy that I was able to break her back,” Sabalenka said.
From then on, the game was only in Sabalenka’s hands. After an hour and 53 minutes and after winning 16 of the last 23 points, the trophy finally belonged to Sabalenka.
“She could play good tennis, but she couldn’t quite sustain it,” Pegula said. “She played great tennis in some great moments.”
It has been a season of ups and downs for Sabalenka. After winning the Australian Open for the second year in a row in January, personal tragedy struck when her former partner Konstantin Koltsov, a former professional hockey player, died just days before the Miami Open. It was ruled a suicide. Sabalenka said in a statement that his death left her “heartbroken.”
On the tennis court, she reached the finals of the clay court tournaments in Madrid and Rome, but battled a stomach virus at the French Open and lost in the quarterfinals. She had to withdraw from Wimbledon because of a shoulder injury. While many of her colleagues took part in the Olympic singles tournament in Paris, Sabalenka – who could have taken part as a neutral athlete because her home country Belarus was barred from participating due to the ongoing war in Ukraine – decided not to take part, citing that her health had to take priority during an already demanding season.
While players like Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz admitted to struggling with fatigue and lack of energy after Olympic medal runs and many surface changes, Sabalenka had no such problems. She came to New York after winning the 1000 title in Cincinnati at her last preparation tournament and has a 16-2 record on hard courts this summer.
In an interview with ESPN after Saturday’s final, she said the break from competition was crucial to her recent success.
“I kept pushing myself and I was at my limit emotionally and physically. It was very important to take a step back and recharge,” said Sabalenka. “Just that little moment with myself really helped me to be fresher and more ready. I felt like I was hungrier this summer than ever before.”
Sabalenka said it was the difficult moments on and off the court that helped her get through the key points on Saturday.
“(I’ve) tried to stay strong and remember that I’ve been through a lot and I’m strong enough to withstand this pressure,” said Sabalenka, the fifth woman to win the Australian Open and the US Open in the same year since 1988, when the Australian major switched to hard courts.
While Pegula, 30, admitted she was disappointed with the final result, she said she was “relatively happy” that she continued to create opportunities in the match and was proud of her performance throughout the tournament.
Having reached the quarterfinals of major tournaments six times before, she moved into her first semifinal on Wednesday thanks to a surprise 6-2, 6-4 victory over world No. 1 Swiatek. Around 24 hours later, she recovered from her 6-1 first set loss to defeat Karolina Muchova in three sets and move into the final.
She wanted to become the second oldest first-time women’s major champion in the Open Era and the first woman since 2006 to beat the top two players in a single US Open. But that was never to happen.
Shortly after leaving the courtroom, she was not yet able to fully assess her performance, but knew that she would probably be able to do well in the future.
“Everyone says, ‘Congratulations! Great tournament!’ and I say, ‘Eh, what the heck,'” Pegula said. “I think once I relax a little bit, maybe I’ll appreciate and see it all a little more.”
Pegula, who won the Canadian Open last month and reached the final in Cincinnati, will move up to No. 3, her career-high, when the new WTA rankings are released on Monday. Sabalenka will remain at No. 2.
ESPN Stats and Information contributed to this report.
