Aryna Sabalenka didn’t let this major tournament slip away from her. Sabalenka hammered Qinwen Zheng, 3 and 2, to win the 2024 Australian Open on Saturday in Melbourne. The final was one-way traffic, as most people expected. In retrospect, the semifinal against Coco Gauff proved to be the most consequential match of the tournament, not only because it featured the only two top-10 seeds who made a deep run at this event, but also because it was a rematch of the 2023 U.S. Open final, a match Sabalenka could have won but failed to tuck away. It was a match in which Sabalenka established the upper hand but then allowed negativity to snowball, a ghost which has frequently haunted the Belarusian’s tennis career.
In 2023, Sabalenka didn’t end the year at No. 1 despite being the most consistent player on the WTA Tour. She didn’t end the year at No. 1 because she let some huge matches evade her grasp. Start with the Roland Garros semifinal against Karolina Muchova in which she led 5-2 in the third set, only to lose the next five games. Continue with the U.S. Open final versus Gauff, in which she dominated the first set and established herself as the better player, but then unraveled in set two and couldn’t regather herself in set three. Gauff did what she does best: compete. The American made Sabalenka hit an extra ball, as she requires of all her opponents. Sabalenka couldn’t put balls in play, and that was that. The rematch in Melbourne, four and a half months later, offered a similar test.
There was no question who hit the bigger ball and had more game. However, the pressure of the occasion and Sabalenka’s ever-present nerves got in her way. Sabalenka stormed to an early 5-2 lead. Then she lost the plot, much like the third set of the Muchova Roland Garros match and the last two sets of the U.S. Open final. Gauff won four straight games and had 30-15 on her serve at 6-5, two points from the set. Gauff then hit a weak forehand into the middle of the net for 30-30.
That was the lifeline Sabalenka needed. She played two strong points to break Gauff, force a tiebreak she dominated, and win the set. That was her escape, her moment of confrontation with supreme pressure. She halted her downward slide. She rescued herself before it was too late. Once she overcame that barrier, the remainder of the tournament was comparatively smoother. She finished the job against Gauff. The final against Zheng involved no crisis of confidence.
Sabalenka had her moment in time, her moment of doubt, her moment to show she could pull through under immense stress. She did at 5-6 in the first set against Gauff. Now her consistency — which has exceeded Iga Swiatek and a fading Elena Rybakina — has been rewarded with that most important and precious achievement for an elite tennis player: a second major title.
It’s always the marker of a special player, going from “one-hit wonder” to second-time champion. Backing up the first major with a second crown gives a tennis player a very important and cherished position in the history of the sport. Four small but very powerful words — “I did it again!” — give Sabalenka and all who came before her the dramatically elevated stature of a repeat major champion.
Fortified and boosted by this achievement, we will see how many trophies Sabalenka can collect in 2024. The world is hers, and a field of opportunity awaits.
Tennis with an Accent 