Aryna Sabalenka beats Jessica Pegula to win the US Open for her third Grand Slam title

Aryna Sabalenka left the US Open in tears 12 months ago as the runnerup She exited in the semifinals each of the two years before that other losses that were difficult to digestOn Saturday Sabalenka was in a joking mood after winning her first championship at Flushing Meadows and the third Grand Slam title of her careerSabalenka the No 2 seed got past No 6 Jessica Pegula 75 75 in a rollicking final under a closed retractable roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium displaying her typical power while sprinkling in some variation to add this triumph to those at the Australian Open each of the past two seasonsI had a lot of tough lessons here especially last year Sabalenka a 26yearold from Belarus said after grabbing the last two games of the first set and the last four of the matchIn those tough moments Saturday I was just trying to stay strong and trying to remind myself that I have been through a lot and Im strong enough to hold under this pressureSitting near the US Open trophy at her news conference Sabalenka alluded to a lot of challengesiquest away from the court There was the death of her father in 2019 The death of an exboyfriend this March A right shoulder problem that forced her to withdraw from Wimbledon right before it began this JulyAlso ReadParis Paralympics Simran bags bronze in womens 200m T12 final Dilip falls short of medalAfter I lost my father its always been my goal to put our family name in the history of tennis she said Every time I see my name on that trophy Im so proud of myself Im proud of my family that they never gave up on my dream and that they were doing everything they could to keep me goingAlso driving her what she called all those tough losses in the past here That includes semifinal defeats in 2021 against Leylah Fernandez and in 2022 against No 1 Iga SwiatekMost poignant of course was last year when Sabalenka was rattled by the Ashe crowd blew a set advantage and was defeated by Coco Gauff Like Gauff Pegula is an American but the spectators were far more generous toward Sabalenka this time applauding her best efforts and even obliging when she waved her arms to ask for extra noiseAfter extending her winning streak to 12 matches Sabalenka thanked the fans for cheering for her which probably wink wink was unrelated to her kidding offer of iquestDrinks on meiquest after an earlier victoryThere were light moments Saturday evening too After her coach Anton Dubrov was awarded a smaller version of the champions trophy for his role in her success Sabalenka teased that its size iquestactually looks sadiquest compared to the real thingShe also laughed after pointing out that if both guzzle booze out of their respective trophies Ill have a hangover tomorrow more than youre going to havePegula a native New Yorker whose parents own the NFLs Buffalo Bills and NHLs Buffalo Sabres was participating in a major final for the first time at age 30 Shes won 15 of her past 17 matches over the past month both losses came against Sabalenka Everyone is like Congrats Amazing tournament Pegula said Im like Eh whateverTo Pegulas credit she did not fold after Sabalenka reeled off five consecutive games to grab the opening set and move ahead 30 in the second In the next game Pegula dropped a point and showed her frustration by whacking a ball off the video wall behind the baseline dislodging a little square panelMaybe that released some tension because suddenly Pegula asserted herself using her own fivegame run to go up 53 But when she served at 54 with a chance to force a third set Pegula let Sabalenka breakShe played some big tennis in big moments Pegula said Sabalenka is as demonstrative as anyone her body language usually a spoton barometer of whether things are going well But as she sputtered at the start Saturday it was tough to read what she was thinking against Pegula who eliminated Swiatek in the quarterfinalsEven while down an early break Sabalenka reacted to mistakes by calmly turning her back and breathing deeply as star athletes from other sports such as Stephen Curry Lewis Hamilton and Noah Lyles looked on from the standsOnce Sabalenka calibrated her booming strokes her forehands were the fastest of the past two weeks speedier than any womans or mans it was apparent the outcome would be determined by herBy the close the statistics made that obvious Sabalenka finished with far more winners than Pegula 4017 and also more unforced errors 3422 Sabalenka controlled most exchanges but also sprinkled in the occasional drop shot or deft volley I was happy I was able to fight back and give myself a chance Pegula said but in the end it wasnt enoughThere was one moment of clear anger from Sabalenka It came at 5all in the first set when she doublefaulted to face a break point then leaned forward and cracked her racket against the court four timesSeemed to work She saved that break point wound up taking that game then broke Pegula to own the opening set A year ago Sabalenka blew that sort of lead against Gauff The year before Sabalenka did the same against Swiatek Didnt let it happen againIn that second set honestly I was just praying there said Sabalenka who collected a 36 million winners check I was literally standing there and prayingThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever