NEW YORK
\nUS Open champion Aryna Sabalenka may be nicknamed \u201cThe Tiger\u201d, but her New York triumph on Saturday was less about raw aggression and more poise, as the world number one steadied herself and regrouped in key moments to claim a fourth Grand Slam title.
\nDetermined to become the first woman since American great Serena Williams (2012\u201314) to defend her crown at Flushing Meadows, the Belarusian carried the weight of recent major setbacks to claim a 6-3 7-6(3) win over Amanda Anisimova in the final and retain her crown.
\nAfter final defeats at Melbourne and Paris, and a Wimbledon semi-final setback against Anisimova, Sabalenka turned all that disappointment into fuel, earning the right to show up to her press conference in party mode, goggles perched on her head and a bottle of champagne in hand.
\n\u201cAfter the Australian Open I thought that the right way would be just to forget it and move on, but then the same thing happened at the French Open. So I figured that, okay, maybe it\u2019s time for me to sit back and to look at those finals and to maybe learn something,\u201d an ecstatic Sabalenka told reporters.
\n\u201cGoing into this final I decided for myself that I\u2019m going to control my emotions. I\u2019m not going to let them take control over me, and doesn\u2019t matter what happens in the match.
\n\u201cMy mindset was just going out there, fight for every point. Doesn\u2019t matter of the situation. Just focus on myself and focus on things that I have to do to win the match.\u201d
\nThe occasion seemed ripe for Sabalenka to crumble under the roar of a partisan Arthur Ashe crowd cheering her American opponent, but the 27-year-old showed that she was equipped to prevail in the toughest moments.
\nSabalenka was serving for the match when she gifted Anisimova a break with a flubbed smash in what seemed a pivotal momentum shift. Yet the top seed did not miss when it mattered the most, winning a record 19th straight tiebreak.
\n\u201cThere were moments where I was really close to losing control, but I told myself, \u2018No, it\u2019s not going to happen. It\u2019s absolutely okay\u2019,\u201d Sabalenka said.
\n\u201cI was really close to losing it, because you cannot make these kinds of mistakes on important points. Sometimes it can be crucial, from my experience.
\n\u201cBut then I turn around and I took a deep breath in, and I was, like, okay, it happens. It\u2019s in the past. Let\u2019s focus on the next one.\u201d
\nSabalenka added that her milestone 100th Grand Slam match win carried extra weight because of the road it took to get there.
\n\u201cYou know, this one felt like I had to overcome a lot of things to get this one,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew that the hard work we put in, like, I deserved to have a Grand Slam title this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka may be nicknamed \u201cThe Tiger\u201d, but her New York triumph on Saturday was less about raw aggression and more poise, as the world number one steadied herself and regrouped in key moments to claim a fourth Grand Slam title. Determined to become the first woman since American great …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":86434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86436,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86422\/revisions\/86436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}