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Aryna Sabalenka won the Australian Open with a decisive two-set victory over Zheng Qinwen, a fitting end to a fortnight that established her as the class of her sport at the moment, even if that’s not what the rankings say.
For the seventh time in as many matches, Sabalenka, a 25-year-old Belarusian power hitter, overwhelmed her opponent for much of the match, bombarding Zheng with her powerful serve, punishing forehands and powerful backhands that, when not sent off the court or inside the net, they are almost impossible for their competition to handle.
Sabalenka finished the first set with a crushing serve and cruised to her 6-3, 6-2 victory on her fifth match point with a strong crosscourt forehand after just 76 minutes.
Sabalenka said she was nervous and anxious before the match, but those emotions disappeared when she entered Rod Laver Arena, a very different experience from her previous two Grand Slam finals.
“As soon as I walked on the court I felt like I was in control,” he said while sipping a glass of champagne.
It was Sabalenka’s second straight title at the Australian Open, the first time a woman has won back-to-back hard-court Grand Slam titles since 2014. In a sport where consistency at the top has been rare, Sabalenka has been a beacon . of stability in the most important tournaments.
As of the 2022 US Open, she has reached at least the semifinals of every Grand Slam. Since the beginning of last year, he has played in three Grand Slam finals, winning two of them and coming within a point of reaching the fourth.
Her consistency is especially notable because not long ago Sabalaenka seemed as lost as a top-level tennis player could be. For months in early 2022, she had the most painful case of the yips, the nickname given to psychological blocks that prevent athletes from performing the most basic actions.
In Sabalenka’s case, she lost the ability to serve, committing 21 double faults in one match and 18 in another. During a victory at the 2022 Australian Open, he celebrated “only” hitting 10. No one could have predicted the streak that would begin in less than a year, or how it might come to fruition.
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Sabalenka, a player who everyone knew had the talent and athleticism to become the best player in the world, basically told her coaches that she didn’t want to talk about her serve anymore. He fired her sports psychologist and decided it would be up to her and her alone to figure it out. And she certainly did.
She also began to speak publicly about the emotions that weighed on her. Sabalenka’s father and first tennis coach died suddenly in 2019, when he was just 43 and she was just 19. She had promised him that she would win a Grand Slam when she was 25. That birthday was approaching. Time was running out and, in a sense, her pain was manifesting itself on the tennis court.
Sabalenka said she decided to start talking about her grief and the pain it caused in hopes of helping other people who lost a parent when they were young. She wasn’t, but unleashing all those raw emotions seemed to free her and allow her to swing more freely than ever.
After last year’s US Open, she was the number one player in the world. Poland’s Iga Swiatek took it back at the end of the season. But Swiatek struggled in her first three matches at the year’s first Grand Slam, albeit against a tough collection of opponents, and failed to make it to the second week, while Sabalenka was successful regardless of who was on the other side of the net. .
In the semifinals she avenged her loss in the US Open final against Coco Gauff. Next up was Zheng, the rising 21-year-old Chinese who, over the past six months, has begun to fulfill the promise that many have predicted for her in recent years: a player who could succeed Li Na as the next tennis player. China. champion. There were large groups of Chinese fans shouting for her and waving the Chinese flag from the first ball, doing everything they could to lift Zheng higher.
“I started pretty slow and didn’t play my tennis match,” Zheng said. “She (Sabalenka) is a really aggressive player. She takes away the comfort of the other player.”
One day Zheng may be able to do that with top players, too. But in addition to facing a top version of Sabalenka, Zheng struggled to handle the nerves of her first Grand Slam final at the end of a tournament in which Sabalenka was the only player Zheng, No. 12, faced in the top 50. top.
Sabalenka assumed he was an enemy on a completely different level, and he was.
She became the first woman to win consecutive Australian Open titles since 2013. Sabalenka, like Victoria Azarenka, is from Belarus. It is a country whose players have had to navigate a fragile position in tennis since Russia, with the support of Belarus, invaded Ukraine in 2022. With the exception of tournaments in Britain, players from Russia and Belarus have been has allowed them to continue competing, but not under their flags or in team competitions and the symbols of their country are prohibited in this sport.
Sabalenka, who lives primarily in Miami, has been repeatedly pressured to speak out against the war, something that can be dangerous for anyone who still has family living in Russia or Belarus. She finally broke her silence on the issue in Paris last year at the French Open following multiple confrontations with a journalist from Ukraine, after which she skipped two post-match press conferences.
“I do not support the war, that is, I do not support Alexander Lukashenko at the moment,” he later said, referring to the president of Belarus.
Sabalenka had supported Lukashenko in the past, appearing in a now-notorious video with him at a New Year’s Eve celebration before the invasion, but long after Lukashenko crushed an opposition movement that accused him of rigging an election to retain power.
It was the start of a tumultuous summer for Sabalenka. He lost from match point in the semifinals of that French Open, then lost a one-set lead in the Wimbledon semifinals and did it again in the US Open final.
Sabalenka said Saturday that the loss to Gauff pushed her to try to improve her game.
Anton Dubrov, his coach, said they spent the fall and offseason trying to develop additional weapons to give him a backup plan if his aggressive strategy of hitting balls down the court went awry.
“We were trying to find a way to be able to continue playing our style even if you’re not playing your best,” Dubrov said Saturday. “We try to work more on the volley and drive the volley to get to the net more. “Just push yourself to get further ahead because if you can’t play the baseline, if you can’t hit winners from the baseline as usual, you can find other ways.”
With the help of their performance coach, the prankster Jason Stacey, they have also tried to keep the atmosphere around the team light and fun.
Over the past two weeks, Sabalenka has taken both approaches to new levels. In so many games and once again on Saturday, he moved up the court and scored points even when he played well from the baseline, taking time away from Zheng and Gauff and everyone else he knocked down.
In the warm-up and training rooms on the lower levels of Melbourne Park, he battled with Stacey and Dubrov for possession of medicine balls, and showed off his flexibility by knocking a cup off Stacey’s head as he rose to his feet with a roundhouse kick. jujitsu.
On game days, he would sign his bald head with a black marker and write Stacey’s name on his ears in case he got lost. The more nonsense, the better.
“It’s very important,” Stacey said. “Just from an emotional standpoint, from a neurological standpoint, more based on neuroscience, how our brains work and just having those, those moments for, I mean, people learn better and pay more attention and are kind of more fresh. , they might have some fun. You have a little creativity.”
Sabalenka said all the playing time helped her stay focused on the court.
“Keep it simple, keep it fun,” he said.
For now, no one is going to accuse Sabalenka of playing such a creative style of tennis or of not having moments where her mind can unravel. But lately, tennis for her has consisted of little more than hitting the ball hard, and if that doesn’t work, hitting it harder, and if that doesn’t work, hitting it hard while it’s still floating in the air near the net. . Sabalenka rarely sees a ball she doesn’t want to hit.
After two weeks of having his way on the field and finishing with his big silver trophy, he has little reason to think he needs to do anything else. She’s having a lot of fun.
(DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)