Aryna Sabalenka’s best friend on a tennis court is the tiebreaker, at least it was in Saturday’s U.S. Open women’s final.
The hard-hitting Belarusian lost the first point of a decisive second-set tiebreaker to one of Amanda Anisimova’s big serves, but then it was Sabalenka’s time to bang her own huge serves home.
Sabalenka won the next six points. She served four of those points and won them all to break the tiebreaker open. Obviously, Sabalenka loves her serve.
Three points later, Sabalenka owned her second straight U.S. Open title.
TIEBREAKER SETTLED THE ISSUE
Thank you, serve, Sabalenka might have thought to herself as she accepted her $5M payday after her 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Anisimova.
All of that came a little after Sabalenka botched or netted a sure-thing lob overhead smash just a few feet from the center of the net that could have given her a match point and possibly a 6-3 second set without having to go through the pressure of holding serve to force the tiebreaker.
Winning a third set might not have been as easy for Sabalenka to accomplish a second straight success in U.S. Open finals.
Remember, Anisimova came into the weekend holding a 6-3 edge in matches against Sabalenka.
SABALENKA WAS READY FOR EVERYTHING
In this meeting, Sabalenka appeared to be ready for everything Anisimova threw her way. Amazingly, Sabalenka outhit Anisimova most of the time.
Sabalenka outplayed Anisimova at her own game. She out-hit Anisimova and definitely moved better. Sabalenka hit so aggressively and hard in her own game that Anisimova could not control the pace of play. Sabalenka was clearly in charge most of the match that gave her a 100th Grand Slam main draw match victory.
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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.
