Aryna Sabalenka Prevails Over Keys In Thriller, Faces Gauff For US Open Title - UBITENNIS
Connect with us

WTA

Aryna Sabalenka Prevails Over Keys In Thriller, Faces Gauff For US Open Title

Published

on

Image via https://twitter.com/WTA_Espanol/

Recently crowned world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka overcame a nightmare start to her latest match at the US Open to reach the final for the first time in her career. 

Sabalenka, who will move to the top of the rankings on Monday, lost eight out of the first nine games against home favorite Madison Keys before fighting back to win 0-6, 7-6(1), 7-6(10-5). The dramatic encounter saw the Belarussian also recover from a 2-4 deficit in the decider during the two-and-a-half-hour battle. In total, she hit 35 winners against 39 unforced errors. 

“She played incredible tennis, it was just another level. Somehow, I don’t know how I turned around this match,” said Sabalenka.
“It really means a lot to be in the final of the US Open for the first time.”

The rollercoaster encounter was a stern test of Sabalenaka’s emotions who at one stage smashed her racket out of anger. Then in the final tiebreaker, she thought she won the match before realizing that it was the first to 10 points. 

“I thought that we play tie-break up to till seven,” she said. “I was just all over the place.”

It is only the third time in the Open Era that a player has won a major semi-final match after losing the first set to love. The other two to do so were Steffi Graf at the 1992 French Open and Ana Ivanovic at the 2008 Australian Open. Sabalenka is the first woman since 2016 to have reached the final of both the Australian Open and US Open within the same season. 

She has now won 50 matches this season. It is the first time in her career that she has managed to reach this number within the same year. 

Gauff awaits

Standing in the way of the 25-year-old claiming this year’s US Open title is Coco Gauff who ousted Karoline Muchova 6-4, 7-5, in her semi-final match. It is the second time in her career that she has reached a Grand Slam final.

“It was a tough match,” said Gauff. “There were a lot of emotional challenges in the match. But I think I did a good job of staying focused. I’m just really proud of myself.”

Besides the drama on the court, the match had to be halted for 50 minutes following protests from environmental protesters with one of them gluing their feet to the ground. The incident started when Gauff was leading 6-4, 1-0. The group Extinction Rebellion has said they were behind the protest. 

Despite her age, Gauff believes she can clinch the trophy after learning from her previous experience of reaching the final at Roland Garros last season. Should she win, she would become only the fourth American woman to claim the title this century after the Williams sisters and Sloane Stephens. 

“I have been focusing more on myself and my expectations of myself. Not going on social media or listening to people who believe that I can or believe that I can’t,” she explained.
“I really believe that now I have the maturity and ability to do it, I’m proud of how I have been handling the last few weeks.”

Heading into the final, Sabalenka is currently trailing 2-3 to Gauff in their head-to-head but won their most recent meeting 6-4, 6-0, in March at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Although she has played down the significance of that win. 

“She improved a lot. So it’s a different player. We don’t like thinking about that match,” she said of Gauff.
“Going into this final, I think I just have to focus on myself and prepare myself for another fight. No matter what, just keep fighting and keep playing my best and do my best.”

A key factor in the final could be who wins the first set with four out of their five previous meetings being won by the player who claimed the opener. Furthermore, Gauff has won her past 15 hardcourt matches after claiming the first set. 

The final will take place on Saturday.

Latest news

World No.634 Laura Samson Reaches First WTA Quarter-Final At 16

Published

on

Laura Samon - image via itftennis.com/ photo credi: Manuel Queimadelos

Laura Samson has become the first player born in 2008 to reach the quarter-finals of a WTA event after producing a surprise win on Tuesday. 

The 16-year-old wildcard stunned second seed Katerina Siniakova 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, in the second round at the Prague Open. Her triumph occurred a day after she dropped just two games against Tara Wurth in her opening match. This week is Samson’s Tour debut after playing 10 events on the lower-level ITF circuit. 

“I’m extremely surprised,” she said during her on-court interview after beating Siniakova. “I didn’t go into it as favorite. I’m so proud of myself and I hope I will continue to play like this. As I was going into the second set I thought, ‘I have nothing to lose, I didn’t play good in the first set.’ I’m not really sure when [I thought I could win], I just believed myself in the third set.” 

Samson is the latest Czech player to break through following a sucessful junior career. Last year she won the Wimbledon girls’ doubles title and was runner-up in the French Open singles tournament in June. She is currently No.3 in the ITF junior rankings but has been ranked as high as No.1. 

Earlier this year, Samson decided to change her name on the Tour by dropping the last three letters (ova). The reason why she did so was to avoid getting confused with another player. 

“I first noticed it last year, there was a problem that I was getting strings (the) of Lyudmila Samsonova,” she told tenisovysvet.cz.

“I also talked about it with her and, for example, according to the schedule, she also sometimes thought she was playing, but it was me,” 

“I would have liked the ending -ová, but unfortunately it turned out like this.”

The teenager will next take on world No.248 Oksana Selekhmeteva with the winner of that match progressing to their first WTA semi-final.  21-year-old Selekhmeteva is a former top 10 junior player who came through two rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw. She is a two-time junior Grand Slam champion in doubles. 

There are five seeds remaining in the tournament, including top seed Linda Nosková who will play Germany’s Ella Seidel in her next match. 

Continue Reading

Latest news

Krejcikova Comes Alive With Her Serve To Win 12th Grand Slam Title At Wimbledon

Published

on

image via x.com/wimbledon

It must have seemed like the whole world was against her when Barbora Krejcikova served for the match for a third time against crowd favorite Jasmine Paolini.

But Krejcikova was only going for her 12th Grand Slam title. She was well prepared.

So, she released her patented way-out-wide serve to the smallish Paolini’s backhand, and the best the Italian could do was get her racket on the ball enough to return the serve far off the court, long and wide.

ARMS UP FOR A CHAMPION

The weight of the world was gone as Krejcikova threw her arms over her head and calmly walked to the net to greet the Wimbledon runner-up.

Now, Krejcikova was half-way home to a career Grand Slam in singles. She already owns a career Grand Slam in doubles among her dozen Grand Slam titles that also include one mixed doubles Grand Slam title.

She has won the hard ones, the French Open on clay and Wimbledon on grass.

At 28 years old, anything must look possible to this 5-10 Czech.

KREJCIKOVA COMES THROUGH UNDER PRESSURE

Paolini simply was out played in a second straight Grand Slam final, on clay and on grass. Now she faces the real tests, two straight Grand Slam tournaments on hard surfaces that might not be overly friendly to the 5-4 Paolini.

But there it was, a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory for Krejcikova on Wimbledon’s famed Center Court.

After what might be called a throw-away second set for Krejcikova, she came alive in the third set, pinning Paolini to the deep corners while nailing low hard-hit balls to both corners.

Krejcikova got off to 40-0 starts on her first four service games of the decisive set and ended all four with service winners to take a 5-3 lead (with the aid of the only service break of the third set). She yielded only one point in those four service games, a double fault at 40-0 that was followed by an ace.

Of course, it was the serve again that saved the day for Krejcikova and gave her set points two and three, then sealed the deal for a spot in Wimbledon history.

James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award  for print media. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com. 

Continue Reading

WTA

Wimbledon Finalist Jasmine Paolini – ‘I’m A Little Bit Scared To Dream Too Much’

Published

on

After coming close to her maiden Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, Jasmine Paolini believes consistency is key to having another shot at glory.

The 28-year-old dropped only one set en route to becoming the first Italian woman to reach a Wimbledon final. However, she was denied the title by Barbora Krejcikova, who won in three sets. Paolini was broken once in the decider which was due to a double fault from the Italian following an unsuccessful hawk-eye challenge made on her first serve. Then she failed to convert two break points when down 4-5 before Krejcikova held to seal glory.

“I started bad,” she reflected afterwards.

“I took some time and try to relax and to come back in the second set stronger to try to push the ball more because I was a little bit controlling too much, and I missed a lot of shots.

“She was playing, honestly, very good the first set. She was serving really, really good. High percentage of first serves.

“It was tough but I think I did better than the last final (at the French Open), but still it’s not enough.”

Prior to Saturday, Paolini had scored wins over former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, Medison Keys (via retirement) and a marathon victory over Donna Vedic. She has now won 15 Grand Slam matches in 2024 compared to just one last season.

The defeat comes less than two months after the French Open where Paolini contested her first major final but lost in two sets to world No.1 Iga Swiatek. Since the start of this season, she has risen more than 20 places in the rankings and will reach No.5 on Monday.

Despite being in her late 20s, the Italian is producing some of her best tennis on the Tour. Something she credits to a combination of things. 

“I improved my game a little bit. I believe more in myself. I improved my serve. I think I improve the return.” She explained.

“I think physically I’m better than two years ago. I’ve been working with a new fitness coach for one-and-a-half years.

“There are many things, I think. Not just one. I think also winning matches helps a lot.”

Whilst she is heading in the right direction on the Tour, Paolini has vowed not to get too ahead of herself.

“Sometimes I’m a little bit scared to dream too much.” she said.

“I’m going back, trying to practice and stay in the present. This is the goal for me and my team, to try to keep this level as much as possible.

“If I keep this level, I think I can have the chance to do great things.

“Today I was dreaming of holding the (Wimbledon) trophy but it didn’t go well.

“I’m just enjoying the position where I am right now.”

Paolini has won 30 out of 43 matches on the Tour so far this season.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Trending