In any sport, maintaining a lead is often as hard as gaining it in the first place. It can get harder to do that in an individual sport where you’re left to banish the doubts and find a way by yourself. In the Australian Open women’s singles final on Saturday, Aryna Sabalenka showed that in world tennis, she’s probably the strongest front runner at the moment.
The 25-year-old headed into the title showdown against Chinese 12th seed Zheng Qinwen on the back of a stunning streak. Across her previous 13 matches at Melbourne Park, which included her triumphant run last year, she had dropped just one set (in the 2023 final). That’s 26 out of 27 sets won. And once again, she was at her dominant best in a 6-3, 6-2 victory against Zheng to bag her second Grand Slam title. She was the overwhelming favourite, but never let the pressure get to her.
It was an emphatic statement by the world No. 2 from Belarus, who became the fifth woman since 2000 to win the Australian Open without dropping a set and the ninth woman in the Open Era to win the singles title in consecutive years. Her serve didn’t get broken even once in the final, a feat last achieved by Serena Williams against Maria Sharapova in 2007.
Dominant display
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